Would you share your home with a stranger?

Adrian_Scope

This week on the community Sam spoke about older people and loneliness, revealing that hundreds of thousands of elderly people are lonely and more than a million say they go over a month without speaking to a friend, neighbour, or even family member.

A couple of weeks ago, the City of York became the latest place to embrace a new homeshare initiative to try and combat the problem, by pairing a lonely older person with a younger person for mutual benefit. According to Homeshare York, the younger person will provide 10 hours of support a week to their older companion in exchange for a room in their home.

Similar schemes have been implemented both across the UK and internationally, and many have reported enjoying the benefits of the inter-generational friendships that seem to come about from the pairings. Obviously this won't appeal to everybody, but is it something you would ever consider doing yourself? We'd love to hear from you.

Ami2301

This is a really interesting idea. This could open a host of opportunities and potentially reducing the rate in which people face homelessness.

Is there an age you have to be to be eligible for this scheme?

Adrian_Scope

Hi @Ami2301, for the York scheme the householder must be aged 55 and older and live by themselves, while the housesharer must be over 21. I think it's definitely an interesting idea and can see how it would be beneficial to both sides.

fyzah

Gosh loneliness is rife. I had so many good friendships throughout my life, then I had my twins late in life [37] they are only 21 and I am 60 and I find myself very alone. I feel isolated more because now I suffer disability and financial hardship after the bankers lost  and screwed up the mortgages. So I find myself on ESA, the government has taken away my housing benefit, because I am in a mortgaged property, and I struggle to eat let alone go out and join in things. It is a political issue, because all the nasty cruel changes this Tory elite government have made has pushed people who were just about surviving, into extreme hardship. If you have no spare money at all, you cannot travel, invite people around for dinner, or go to the cinema etc; and build a social life. I cannot even attend hospital appointments and I have a tumour in my spine, because I am unable to always put petrol in the car. I feel, that if at least you have some money, there are groups, clubs to join and at least some way forwards when it comes to loneliness. So I think isolation and loneliness is very hand in hand with poverty, and disability.

Jean Eveleigh

if I had the space and there was no requirement to live alone I would want to know more about this now (i'm late 30's) being my carer has all but destroyed my relationship with my partner, to the point he had to move out and return over 200 miles to his parents home and now visits me to try to maintain our relationship (over a decade long) due to benefit restrictions we cannot spend more than 5 months a year together or could be done for fraud as classed as living together:-(

Having a live in carer would be a godsend to help me, SS agree I benefit from 20/7 care but only finance 16.5 hours per week so I struggle when my partner isn't around to cope with the basics of day to day living