Carolyn Allen, left, a 69-year-old widow who has suffered two strokes, makes her way to the living room with roommate Marcia Rosenfeld, who owns the apartment Allen lives in New York. The two women are roommates thanks to a home-sharing program run by a New York-based nonprofit agency. Rosenfeld's two-bedroom apartment is too big for her, and even with a senior citizen's rent break, at over $1,000 a month, it was too expensive, so she is happy to have Allen help share living expenses. Allen doesn't want to live alone and doesn't want to spend a lot on rent, so she and Rosenfeld agree the program suits their individual needs.

Allen, a 69-year-old widow who has suffered two strokes, holds a photo of herself, right, with her late husband Carlton in Marcia Rosenfeld's Brooklyn apartment in New York.

Allen, left, recounts how she fell in the bathtub and was helped by roommate Rosenfeld, right, who owns the Brooklyn, New York apartment where Allen lives.

Rosenfeld sits in the living room of the same Brooklyn apartment building she has lived in since 1971.

Carolyn Allen, left, a 69-year-old widow who has suffered two strokes, is shown with roommate Marcia Rosenfeld, who owns the apartment in Brooklyn, New York, where Allen lives. The two women are roommates thanks to a home-sharing program run by the New York Foundation for Senior Citizens, a nonprofit agency. Rosenfeld's two-bedroom apartment is too big for her, and even with a senior citizen's rent break it was too expensive, so she is happy to have Allen help share living expenses. The pair say the home-sharing program works well for them.