How AirBNB helps users save their homes from foreclosure

Last year Debra Giusti left her job as an IT project manager to help care for her 91 year-old mother, who was suffering from advanced Alzheimer's disease and a broken pelvis. But when she tried returning to the workforce, Gusti couldn't find any takers. Meanwhile, the mortgage payments kept coming due on her 3-bedroom home in San Mateo, California.

What saved Giusti from foreclosure wasn't an employer, government assistance or the kindness of strangers. Instead it was AirBNB, the start-up that lets property owners rent out couches, spare rooms and entire homes to those looking for a place to stay. Giusti began renting out a spare bedroom with a private bath in San Mateo, plus a guest apartment with a private entrance beneath her mother's home in San Francisco.

http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2012/08/16/airbnb-foreclosure/