Damon Dvorson, just 18 years old and a student at UC Santa Barbara, single-handedly signed three leases for his fraternity in 2022. Unfamiliar with legal documents, Dvorson was terrified when he suddenly realized he had signed a million dollars’ worth of leases and now had to fill 51 spots on his own.
“With over a million dollars worth of leases in my name and the looming threat of being turned over to a collection agency, I quickly realized something had to be done. Although I eventually managed to fill all 51 positions, the stress cost me years of my life,” Dvorson said.
As a data science student, Dvorson started coding and dove into a passion project that became Housing Helper. The basic concept is to connect those who sublet or lease with anyone looking for housing.
“No one should have to worry about having a roof over their head. As housing becomes increasingly scarce, we need a platform tailored to group housing,” said Dvorson, who spoke with electrifying enthusiasm and was full of ideas to improve the housing situation in Isla Vista. “Students cannot be expected to pay the full deposit for a few months of housing, nor should they have to throw months of rent out the window just because they couldn’t find a subtenant. We bring students and available apartments together.”
When he was looking for apartments, there were no housing apps he could use, which led him to start Housing Helper. “You go on Zillow and the only thing it really does is connect you with a realtor, which sets in motion a process that takes at least a week. It does nothing And it costs you money. You go to Facebook Marketplace and every single other post is from a bot account. I wanted to create a safe place,” he said.
After developing Housing Helper, Dvorson expanded his team, bringing on Alex Nicholas as Chief Operating Officer and Mason Watters as Chief Marketing Officer.
Watters, as a new student at UCSB, had a similarly difficult time finding an apartment in Isla Vista. Like Dvorson, she felt compelled to create a resource and set up the social media account @sbshousing, which served as a platform for users to post apartment and roommate listings.
“After about a year, the account already had 3,000 followers. It connected thousands of students from SBCC (Santa Barbara City College) and UCSB, and even housing associations were able to connect with tenants,” Watters explained. “I came across Housing Helper. Their Instagram account was new and I messaged them because I thought it was such an incredible idea.”
This fundamental component of @sbshousing – personalizing the apartment and roommate search so users can find suitable spaces and living partners – is a central feature of Housing Helper.
“Housing Helper matches you with the people who are the best fit for you, not just location,” said Dvorson. “We know that who you live with is just as important as where you live. We match students based on year of study, interests and, most importantly, personal descriptions.”
Because Housing Helper was developed by people who know the astronomical rents, limited options, fierce competition, and exploitative property managers that make up Isla Vista’s real estate market, the app is packed with features only those in the know could imagine. For example, the app can track who owes what, making it much easier to calculate individual rent and utilities.
Dvorson and his team also adapted Housing Helper almost immediately based on customer feedback. They received a comment suggesting that Housing Helper be offered exclusively to students in the area to prevent scammers from flooding the site. “And so I thought, ‘Okay, why don’t we just make it so that you need a .edu email address to sign up,'” Dvorson recalls. He integrated the feature the same day.
Housing Helper was recently launched and is now available on the Apple App Store. For more information, visit the Housing Helper website: https://housinghelperiv.com/
