LAUNCHED EARLY LAST year, The HomeShare service aimed to match lonely older people with students and professionals looking for somewhere to live.

For John (86) and Amy (28), the process has worked a treat.

At the beginning of May, John’s wife passed away and after a stay in hospital himself he was anxious about returning to an empty house where nobody would be there to keep an eye out for him if he fell or hurt himself.

“I feel more secure,” he says of having Amy around while Amy, a student, says living with John is a lot easier than her previous cramped living situation where it was overcrowded, busy, and took a toll on her grades.

And “John has so many great stories” she says.

Lucie Cunningham, a former nurse and home care worker who founded HomeShare, says this approach, which is already active in many other countries around Europe, could help deal with loneliness in older people and the current housing crisis.

We visited John and Amy to see what living together was like.