An ‘Airbnb For Refugees’ Service Is Coming To Australia Next Year

A team of Aussie volunteers have created a platform that matches refugees and asylum seekers with folk willing to offer a spare room in their house.

The group of eight have coined the service ‘Refugees Welcome’ and it’s set to launch in 2017, SBS reports.

“It’s about creating a welcoming culture,” Refugees Welcome organiser Susan de Groot Heupner told SBS. She explains how the team wish to show that there are genuinely many people in Australia who are willing to open up their homes to strangers in need, adding that, “It’s not just about housing, it’s about integration.”

The service already exists in Germany, and its effects have been long-lasting. Heupner said, “When Germany came up with this idea… about finding housing - they had people literally walking across the border - but now that they’re established, it’s become a model for integration and social inclusion.”

In the past, Australian churches and diaspora groups have offered home-stay through their own informal networks networks. However, there’s currently no national platform for home-stay networks for refugees and asylum seekers.

Another Sydney-based group called ‘Enough Room’ is also mustering up resources to launch a similar service. Co-founder Sam Terry said, “We want to be a stepping-stone on the way to self-sufficiency, helping people establish roots with the community.”

Terry said the idea sprung to mind when he was mulling over practical ways to help refuges and asylum seekers. “I thought there would be lots of people like me who are white, haven’t had much contact, but wanted to do more,” he told SBS.

Executive Manager of Housing at Settlement Services International NSW, Patrick Yeung, says the service will be a welcome addition. He sees it as a useful option for when people first arrive, to help get them on their feet.

Where would we be without the sharing-economy, to be honest?

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