Homeshare scheme brings comfort to young and old | Money | The Guardian

Homeshare scheme brings comfort to young and old | Money | The Guardian

For the majority of the 53 years Barbara Clapham has lived in her Victorian ground floor flat in an idyllic tree-lined street in central London she has been alone – but now the 97-year-old pensioner has a friend.

Beth Cooke, 26, has been staying in Clapham's spare room for just two weeks, but already she cooks, washes-up and does the shopping. It is like having the perfect granddaughter to stay, except Cooke's not related and, until a month ago, she'd never met or even heard of Clapham. The odd pairing, bringing together two people seven decades apart in age, came through a scheme called Homeshare.

The project, organised by a charity called Crossroads, provides affordable housing for young people in central London and companionship and support for elderly people who live on their own.