Putney-based Homeshare Company May Have Helped Thousands

Tackles both isolation of the elderly and the housing shortage

Share and Care Homeshare Directors Amanda Clarke and Caroline Cooke

May 27, 2025

Putney-based organisation which has matched hundreds of young renters with elderly homeowners has said the service is changing lives for the better. Caroline Cooke, 55, set up Share and Care Homeshare in 2006 after seeing the challenges her parents faced when her father had dementia.

Share and Care matches younger people looking for a place to stay with elderly homeowners with a spare room across the capital and beyond. The community interest company, which exists to benefit the community rather than private shareholders, has brought together thousands of people in houseshares so far.

The company has seen a dramatic rise in demand for its services, Caroline said, as spiralling rents, the cost-of-living crisis and widespread loneliness spur people into seeking alternative living arrangements. It provides younger people with an affordable place to live in exchange for 15 hours of extra support and companionship a week – perhaps shopping, sitting down for a chat, helping to clean or going on a walk. They do not provide any personal or nursing care to the homeowner, who is still visited by carers if needed.

Caroline told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) most people who use the service “say that it’s absolutely changed their lives for the better”. Both people in the arrangement see their lives improved by the other’s practical support and companionship, she said, which has many knock-on benefits – including improved mental health, reduced risk of falls, instant support in case of an emergency and peace of mind for families.

Caroline said, “Sometimes people come to us and say when they start, ‘mum’s been going to bed about 6pm, 7pm in the evening because she’s bored, she’s lonely, there’s nothing to do, so she just goes to bed,’ and when they’ve got a sharer coming back, they have a meal together, maybe watch a programme, and then they go off to bed at a normal time.

“They get a bit of routine, they sleep better, so it has so much impact. There’s so many hidden benefits as well as the obvious benefits that come out of homeshare. And then the peace of mind – you’d know if someone had a fall they’re going to be found more quickly because someone’s living there and coming and going, or there in the night just in case of an emergency.”

No cash is exchanged between the homeowner and sharer except for a contribution to household bills, if requested – capped at £65 a month. They each pay the company a monthly fee of £165 to help keep it running. Sharers are thoroughly vetted and carefully matched with homeowners based on shared interests.

One elderly widower with dementia who uses the service has got his confidence back since his sharer moved in, Caroline said. “He’s able to live at home, which makes the family much happier,” she told the LDRS. “But also he’s got some of his life skills back, and he’s actually being involved and valued.”

Caroline's parents Bryan and Anne

In another case, the service matched a 94-year-old ex-professor with dementia who was desperate to keep working with a mature medical student. Caroline said, “While she was off at university in the day, he had a wonderful library full of medical books and he’d go through his books, he’d go through the newspapers, he’d do research. Then over dinner they would sit and he genuinely helped her with her studies and the research she was doing for her PhD.”

Regarding an NHS nurse who lived in one houseshare for two years and then another for a year, Caroline added: “At the end of the three years she said, ‘this is amazing, I’ve been able to save a deposit to finally get a flat of my own – something I could never, ever have done if I’d been paying London rents,’ so it’s really lovely that it’s about two sets of people helping each other in a very human way.”

Share and Care currently has around 100 active houseshares – mostly in London, but also in other parts of the country. The arrangements on average last for around one-and-a-half years, but many continue for several years – the longest so far being 12 years.

Caroline told the LDRS the service can step in before someone has to enter a care home, providing a more affordable alternative which allows them to keep their independence. She said its popularity is only growing amid the rising costs of care and shortage of carers, and she is keen to raise more awareness as “there are so many, many more people that we could help.”

“For me, it’s really important for people to know that there’s another choice,” Caroline added. “I think traditionally it’s always been when people need support they probably start with having a cleaner, then they get a carer coming in and then they think they either need a full-time carer or a care home. It’s nice to know there’s another step.”

Charlotte Lilywhite - Local Democracy Reporter