Airbnb offers free emergency housing for people displaced by Australian bushfires
Thousands of people in Australia are being urged to flee their homes as bushfires ravage huge swaths of the country.
Airbnb is offering free emergency accommodation for people displaced by the fires and for those helping with relief efforts in the affected states of New South Wales and Victoria.
The devastation left in the wake of the fires is unparalleled, and they're still burning. Nineteen people have died. 1,365 homes in NSW have been consumed by the fires. 3.5 percent of Victoria has been burned and over 11 million acres have been destroyed.
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Authorities in Victoria sent 250,000 texts to people in bushfire-affected areas asking them evacuate. And in NSW, people in a 14,000 square kilometre area have been implored to leave the area overnight. Hundreds of people were unable to evacuate after being stranded by fires and are now being rescued by sea and air.
If you have been evacuated from your home or are assisting with recovery efforts, Airbnb is offering free, temporary accommodation between Jan. 2 and Jan. 16. using its established Open Homes platform.
If you are in Victoria, click here to search and apply for Airbnb emergency housing. If you are in NSW, click here to do so.
Want to help?
You can offer any extra space in your home to people affected by the bushfires and relief workers.
Airbnb needs people who have housing available from Jan. 1 to Jan. 16 2020.
Per Airbnb, you'll need to provide: "A spare room or apartment, a comfortable bed, basic amenities and toiletries, availability for 2 or more days in a row."
If you're in NSW, click here and scroll down to the section which reads 'Offer emergency housing in New South Wales'. If you're in Victoria, click here and scroll down to the 'offer' section.
If you don't already have an Airbnb account, you will need to set one up in order to access or offer emergency housing — it's quick to do so. After searching for accommodation, you'll need to message a host to request to stay.
You can read more here about helping Australia's unpaid firefighters battle the bushfire crisis.
Topics Social Good Airbnb
Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.
A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.
Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.
