As the threat of foreclosures looms, some American families are resorting to variations of house-share that cover the costs of their mortgages, and keep their homes. While exposing their privacy to strangers may have given them second thoughts, they are getting used to the idea of that, and of keeping their homes too.

Some underwater American families have found the idea of a bed and breakfast appealing. A few dry interior walls convert space easily, and a variety of websites such as Craiglist and Airbnb.com bring in the customers. Families that I spoke to mentioned incomes as high as $4,500 per month, which is more than enough to cover the average mortgage. “We were going to lose our house,” a grateful mother told me. “I’d much prefer to lose a little privacy.”

There are more than enough takers for bed and breakfast deals to absorb these new opportunities. American under-employment and foreclosures have produced innumerable individuals and families who are honest, and have a little money, but have been forced out onto the streets.

In a classic reaction, the existing lodging industry is fighting back with cries of not in my back yard and prices and standards will collapse. With vested interests in mind the New York Legislature has passed a bill forbidding rentals of less than 30 days in apartment buildings.

Whatever happened to American entrepreneurship, and the tradition of frontier people taking the dispossessed into their homes and hearts? Has America become heartless? I shared my concerns with the Chief Executive Officer of the American Hotel and Lodging Association. He assured me that the legislation (which he supported) was aimed at multi-family apartments in downtown areas, as opposed to individual homes. “What are the qualifications, what are the sanitary things that are going to be done, how are you going to make sure that noise is regulated, how are you going to make sure they’re not parking all over the place?” he asked. “You have to take a look, situation by situation, and area by area.”

The founder of Airbnb.com sees things in a completely different light. We simply responded to a situation and a requirement, and have helped thousands of Americans keep their homes. What is wrong with that? He asked me.

It remains to be seen where this particular debate will end. The customers of the new breed of bed and breakfasts have not been stolen from the lodging industry, and, in fact did not exist until recently. To me, it makes little sense to drive this innovative new brand of financially troubled American families into foreclosure, and to see their tenants back in the street as well.

You will find more news, and cheap foreclosed property as well, at www.foreclosuredatabank.com.

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