April 2025
I’m 50 and live with a woman in her 80s – I only pay £150 a month in rent
Monica Galante provides 15 hours of help in exchange for a low rent Monica Galante, 50, pays just £150 in rent to live in Essex. In exchange to pay such low rates, she shares a two-bedroom home with a lady in her eighties and helps her around the house.
February 2025
Interview starts at 19.28 mins in to the programme
Caroline Cooke, Founder of Share and Care Homeshare talks with Jess Sykes and Kath Moore daughters of two householder participants in the scheme to Claira Hermet about the benefits and the home share experience.
January 2025
Interview with Caroline Cooke on homeshare arrangements – including discussing process, real-life examples.
January 2025
January 2025
Would you share your home with a stranger?
Homesharing is the growing trend of pairing up people in different life circumstances as housemates with both sides reaping big practical, social psychological benefits. Angela Kennedy talks to a homeshare matchmaker…
July 2024
I’m 29 and moved in with a 90-year-old- it only costs me £150 in rent
Damini Pal’s homeshare scheme lets her enjoy cheaper housing – in exchange for supporting an older person living with dementia
May 2024
From speed-plating to “au pairing for the elderly’, meet the Londoners taking renting to extremes
As the capital’s renting situation spirals out of control, tenants are going to new lengths to secure a home in the city.
April 2024
‘I moved in with a pensioner for cheap rent – I didn’t bargain on the social benefits’
Intergenerational house shares are on the rise amid worsening rent and care crisis.
March 2024
‘Sharing is Caring’ We’ve helped each other‘
Abi Ottukoya 31. lives in south-east London with 85 -year-old John and his wife Mary, 86. They moved in together last October. ‘It’s the most rewarding experience’ says Abi
February 2024
‘I’m 26, and pay just £150 a month in rent by sharing with a 92-year-old’ NHS medic Lucy Fabode said she has a ‘special bond’ with pensioner Lily
February 2024
The Generation Game
Young and old have a lot to bring to each other’s lives, as these women’s stories reveal……
January 2024
Written by Sharer Flora Griffin
January 2024
- Maria Mattei, 27, lives with an elderly lady in her eighties to save money on rent
- The pair have formed an intergenerational friendship and even cook together
November 2023
Christine was looking for a cheap room in a flat share, when a surprising option popped up…..
Sharing is caring!
September 2023
Dementia and poor mobility are driving the demand for homesharing
It can seem like an older relative who is finding living independendently a little harder than it used is stuck for choices.
June 2023
‘ She reminded me of my mum’: Two women 50 years apart become best friends in house share
Christine and Margaret have lived together in Hither Green for 12 months
May 2023
Pre- recorded interview with homeshare couple Christine and Margaret. Plus live interview with Caroline Cooke aired on BBC London evening and news
April 2023
Sharer Natalie Pegg talks to Chat magazine about living with someone generations apart
March 2023
Moving stories – tales from up and down the property ladder Natalie moved in with Hanson, to save rent.
January 2023
Low-cost housing:how can you escape the rent rat race
December 2022
‘It’s a win-win. I’m not broke and I’m not lonel
Bloomberg November 2022
Johanna Lundström, can’t afford to rent in London. When she moved to the capital for her music career in 2020, she realized that she did not have the roughly £1,000 or so a month needed to rent a room and pay utility bills.
She used an agency called Share and Care to find her home. Although she pays norent, Lundström pays an ongoing £150 a month fee to the agency, which says it has seen a 50%increase in applications in the past few months.“It’s quite depressing to think about how desperate people are: they’re saying they just can’t find
anywhere to live,” said Amanda Clarke, Share and Care.
November 2022
Homesharing is a great way to provide older people with support and companionship
My Merton Autumn 2022
Share and Care Homeshare is a great way to provide older people with the company they crave and the help they need.
September 2022
Eddie Nestor on BBC Radio London interviews Caroline Cooke on Homeshare arrangements in London
August 2022
Generation game: London home sharers ‘ still going strong’ at 84 and 42 years old
Flo Taylor and Luciana Cane are not typical London housemates. At 84, Flo is exactly double Luciana’s age. And they grew up in different parts of the world: Flo in the UK and Luciana in Italy.
June 2022
“The idea is that we match an elderly person that needs some practical low-level support and company with a sharer , so that they can remain independent in their own hom
June 2022
How sharing a home with a young person can give older people a new lease of life
“One of our sharers is also an author and he’s even written a book about his home sharing experience during the pandemic, called The Marmalade Diaries: The True Story of an Odd Couple”
April 2022
The housemates plan that could solve care crisis
Renters help elderly….and get cheap room
A HEARTWARMING initiative that pairs elderly homeowners with younger housemates could help solve the UK’s care crisis, its creators say.
March 2022
When 34-year-old Ben moved in with 84-year-old Winne, she didn’t much take to him. But after improving his cooking, timekeeping and general knowledge, their unlikely friendship blossomed…
March 2022
Ben Aitken talks about living in a Homeshare with Winnie and his book on the intergenerational experience!
March 2022
Bridging the generation gap
When looking for a house share. Ben Aitken opted to move in with someone five decades his senior:The results ensured an unforgettable year. Here he charts his story and champions the benefits of intergenerational friendships
February 2022
The odd couple
When Ben Aitken, 35 rented a room from Winnie, 85, neither had an inkling how lockdown would force their lives together-or that they would end up the best friends.
December 2021
Moving in with a 84-year-old stranger was one of the best decisions of my life
When Flo and I are at home, we often have a meal together, drink tea, chat, paint, look at photo albums, and more.
October 2021
Homeshare:the positive impact of intergenerational living
Balancing independant living with an older person’s need is a balancing act for many families. Homeshare could be the solution you seek, writes Caroline Cooke.
October 2021
I’m 42 sharing a house with a stranger, 84, but she’s now my best friend.
July – September 2021
Ben and Wendy met through Share and Care Homeshare community interest company.
June 2021
Intergenerational living could alleviate loneliness and money worries.
April 2021
The role of homeshare for older people during and post-pandemic. Flo and Luciana have built a friendship through home sharing in the pandemic that has seen them litter picking together in local park.
March/April 2021
Share and Care Homeshare’s director Amanda Clarke, says homeshare offers’ very low-cost support and homeshare decreases anxiety, boosts confidence, encourages self-worth and provides reassurance for families.
February 2021
We’re 45 years apart but get on like a house-share on fire.
November 2020
The writer Ben Aitken, 34, has moved in with Wendy, 84
Sick of solitude, solo renters are finding flatmates so they won’t be lonely in lockdown.
February 2019
How sky-high rents have forced people to explore imaginative alternatives
January 2018
Britain’s most unlikely flatmates
Poppy, 24, and John, a sprightly 80. So is the new scheme that brought them together the answer to BOTH the housing crisis- and loneliness among elderly?
December 2017
March 2017
Dympna O’Sullivan, 83 is a former landlady who lives in Greenford, West London. Apphia SZE, 27 is a part-time student, working in primary schools across central London.
February 2016
A Homeshare scheme allows Maria to provide live-in help and companionship. “Things just clicked for us and we are good friends”
June 2014
HOW THE YOUNG can help the old.
Most elderly people want to stay in their own homes and now there are more schemes to help them. Homesharing is a housing-for-help exchange. Precious, her 94-year old mother-in-law, Marjory, and her Homesharer Anna-Louise explain how it works.
May 2013
Here to lend a hand.
Homeshare schemes let young people offer help and company to the elderly, in return for cheap lodgings. Everyone’s a winner.
March 2012
War veteran Marjory decided after meeting to share her house with Heather, a nursing student. Heather gives 10 hours’ help a week, cooking three or four times and doing light cleaning they have been home sharing with Share and Care since 2010
