As someone with a reliable housemate, yet still going to move out on my own, this is indeed important a million times over. My roommate and I have been friends since kindergarten and we get along great and play video games together and what not. I'm actually the pot smoker in this situation but him and his GF (who is in real estate) are looking at new condos, and want to bring me with them to help with cost since I'm a pretty reliable housemate myself. I think I'm going to take the opportunity to move into a studio apartment. Living alone will do something to your mind that is completely different than living with a housemate. It will allow you to fully grasp your freedoms and what you're capable of alone without any other influence. With a housemate even though there are responsibilities to be shared, there will constantly be a social influence in your life which is an extra responsibility which cannot be ignored, the social influence will be there whether you like it or not. Some people need that influence to set their life strait, like OP's friend in this situation. That social influence more often than not gets in the way of figuring out to obtain personal fulfillment which for someone in their 20's, is extremely important. Special needs is not something to be ignorant of, the writing is on the wall that he needs a reliable influence on his life which can be quite a burden to someone unprepared. There are other ways to help your friend which do not involve sacrificing a part of your life for, the main issue here is that sympathy has overstepped the ability to give and now OP's regretting it. If you were in your 30's with a good paycheck and a house with room to board, hell ya hook your friend up, but people in their 20's are going to be struggling over the next decade no matter how one looks at it, it's going to be extremely difficult to manage the extra baggage and maintain one's on sanity.