St Ambrose Housing Aid Center, based in an attractive town house on a quiet residential road seems a world away from the Baltimore of gungs and gangs portrayed in hit television series, The Wire. It’s actually only around two miles away from the location used as the home of the Barksdale Crew, but far from being here to investigate drug meets and police corruption, Inside Housing is on a mission to find out more about something altogether more community-minded: the home sharing programme St Ambrose has been running for nearly 30 years.
Historically the programme has mainly served as an assisted living scheme through which older homeowners, who want somebody to help around the house, are matched with sharers willing to do it in return for reduced rent.