In times of crisis and disaster, Airbnb partners with government agencies and regional disaster relief organizations to connect Airbnb hosts with evacuees and emergency responders, free of charge. In response to the growing threat of Hurricane Florence, Airbnb has activated the Open Homes program, our platform to provide free temporary housing to people displaced by natural disasters, conflict and illness.
The program has been activated in metropolitan areas of Atlanta, Athens, Augusta, and Macon in Georgia; Asheville, Charlotte, Greensboro, and Winston-Salem in North Carolina; Anderson, Columbia, Greenville, Rock Hill, and Spartanburg in South Carolina; Chattanooga, Knoxville, Johnson City, and Kingsport in Tennessee; and Charlottesville, Lynchburg, Richmond, and Roanoke in Virginia. Hosts in these areas can provide housing – free of charge – to storm evacuees and emergency relief workers from now through October 1, 2018.
The idea for Airbnb’s disaster relief program came from an Airbnb host in Brooklyn in 2012 in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, and has since grown into a global disaster response initiative that makes it easy for Airbnb hosts to provide space for people in need when disasters strike. To date, the disaster response and relief team has responded to over 250 disasters worldwide and during Hurricanes Harvey and Irma last year, more than a thousand hosts opened their doors to evacuees and emergency responders.
If you have an extra room in your home or are in need of temporary housing yourself, please visit https://www.airbnb.com/welcome/evacuees/hurricane-florence-2018 to sign up or learn more about the program.