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Airbnb to Expand Emergency Housing Initiative

  • June 11th 2018

by Nena Perry-Brown

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Airbnb to Expand Emergency Housing Initiative: Figure 1
An Airbnb rental in Bloomingdale.

Last year, hotel-alternative home-sharing service Airbnb expanded to add more humanitarian services to its platform, with an announced initiative to house refugees that evolved into the Open Homes program for those displaced by emergencies. Now, that program is expanding.

As Techcrunch reports, Airbnb is unrolling a pilot program that will enable hosts to list their properties in advance of a disaster. This will then make it easier for people who need housing post-emergency to secure it without having to wait. 

Open Homes currently operates by putting hosts willing to donate space in their homes with emergency personnel that connect hosts with those in need of housing. Airbnb estimates that 17,000 nights' worth of emergency housing has been provided since the program's inception.

The new pilot program will start in San Jose, California and expand to other cities from there. Airbnb will also offer “in person preparedness training and recruitment events” for hosts and amend the protocol for putting hosts in contact with local emergency managers.

See other articles related to: airbnb, airbnb open homes

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/airbnb-to-expand-emergency-housing-initiative/14098.

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