Kansas City Hacker Homes is couchsurfing for Google Fiberheads

• BrianThacker.tv
• The next business incubator could be on your pull-out couch.

That guy who has been living on your couch rent-free these past several months? You might want to start asking him for some stock options. Ars Technica has the story of Kansas City Hacker Homes — a project launched yesterday by local Web developer Ben Barreth to hook up aspiring developers with places to stay. Hosts who sign up with Kansas City Hacker Homes agree to foster a hacker for three months, rent-free.

“The reason why we’re doing this is to encourage startups to move into the KC area and to make Kansas City a better place to live and work,” Barreth writes on the Homes for Hackers site.

Hackers buy their own food, build a new start-up business and “pay this kindness forward.” Hosts agree to offer a basement/room, utilities (including access to Google Fiber when it’s installed), an introduction to KC and show “Midwestern kindness to a total stranger.” And that’s why your spare bedroom is now the new garage startup.