Oksana Bezkorovaina and her daughter Masha spend time at a friend’s apartment where they stayed before moving to an Airbnb with the help of Our Choice and HIAS on June 4, 2022 in Warsaw, Poland (Betsy Joles for HIAS)
WARSAW — Housing was an afterthought when Oksana Bezkorovaina arrived in Poland from border Ukraine with her daughter Masha and sister Maryna. The trio had gone through the boom trying to get out of their home in Kharkiv, where they slept in the basement with their shoes on – ready to flee at a moment’s notice.
The relief they felt crossing the border in the first week of March quickly turned to anxiety as they had no idea where they were going to stay. Fortunately, the family found a Polish couple who invited them to live in their house. The Poles were consummate hosts, offering the contents of their fridge and buying four-year-old Masha enough toys to fill a suitcase. “When we saw all this support, we started crying,” Bezkorovaina said. “We will be grateful to them all our lives.”
The family’s stay lasted three months and they feared taking advantage of the hospitality of their Polish hosts. In Poland, where some 3.5 million refugees from Ukraine have fled since the war began in late February, many Ukrainians grapple with the same fear as their time away from home drags on. High rental costs and a shortage of apartments in major cities make it difficult for refugees to find long-term accommodation.
Seeking alternatives, Bezkorovaina and her sister contacted the Ukrainian House, an information center for Ukrainian immigrants in Warsaw run by Our Choice Foundation. There they discovered that with the support of HIAS they had the option of staying at an Airbnb. They were relieved to know they would have their own home as they made a plan for the weeks ahead. “War is [still] ongoing,” Bezkorovaina said. “We will definitely stay here in Poland.”
As more Ukrainians move to Poland, Airbnb is helping to address the critical short-term housing shortage, said Irka Jazukiewicz, who coordinates refugee accommodation for Our Choice. Airbnb.org, the independent non-profit partner of Airbnb, Inc., was already an active partner of HIAS and it made sense to work together to meet the pressing challenge of housing some of the millions of Ukrainians who have left their homes since the beginning. of the war nearly four months since. The company has committed up to 21 days of free housing for 100,000 refugees from Ukraine — partnership with HIAS and other organisations.
“Since 2017, our partnership with Airbnb and Airbnb.org has enabled HIAS to help more than 20,000 refugees find short-term housing in Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Guyana and the United States,” said said Jessica Reese, HIAS vice president for institutions. Development. “This new initiative will provide refugees with temporary and safe accommodation so they can orient themselves as they plan their next steps.
Jazukiewicz said private housing options like this are essential for vulnerable groups like people with health issues, people from the LGBTQ community, or people of color who have experienced discrimination and struggled. to find Polish hosts through other channels.
Jazukiewicz and her boyfriend have been independently hosting Ukrainian guests at their apartment since early March and she said they are now part of the family. Yet after the trauma people went through to leave Ukraine, Jazukiewicz said giving them the chance to live independently was crucial. “I think [having a] a separate space for them is really important to bring their minds together and feel something like home for a while.
Rising refugee demand has only exacerbated housing shortages in major cities like Warsaw, said Benjamin Cope, who oversees refugee support partnerships for Our Choice. “Before the war, apartments were really hard to find, especially apartments for rent.” Cope said innovative housing solutions were helping organizations overwhelmed by the scale of humanitarian needs. “[The partnership of] Airbnb.org and HIAS are an additional resource,” he said. “It’s great that there is another possibility.”
“When needed, organizations like HIAS are our eyes and ears on the ground. Their work to support refugees fleeing Ukraine demonstrates their commitment to vulnerable communities, and we are proud to work with them to provide those who have experienced unimaginable hardship with a comfortable place to stay while they plan for the next step. of their lives,” said Katherine Woo, executive director of Airbnb.org.
Masha Dmytruk, who coordinates the HIAS Airbnb.org project for Our Choice, took on the challenge of trying to find accommodation firsthand. When she arrived in Poland from Ukraine the first week of March, she could not find an apartment in Lodz, the city in central Poland where she was staying. “It’s been a really big problem, housing since the early days of the war,” she says. She ended up staying with a friend of a friend for a few weeks before moving to Warsaw to start working.
But Dmytruk said the housing shortage for refugees will worsen during the summer months as temporary housing options like tourist hotels begin to reopen for regular operations. At the same time, Ukrainians stay in Poland because they want to return to Ukraine as soon as possible. “A lot of them don’t want to go far,” Dmytruk said. “They don’t want to immigrate for a long time, for years. They’re just waiting to get home.
Bezkorovaina’s sister, Maryna, returned to Ukraine late last month to see her husband and son, who were not allowed to leave the country due to military conscription. They urged her not to return until things were safer. Bezkorovaina said she would consider taking a similar trip to see her own husband, but with Masha in tow she said it wasn’t worth the risk. “With a child, it’s too dangerous to go back.”
For now, the family is happy to stay in an Airbnb where they don’t have to worry about housing for a few weeks. Although their future in Poland remains uncertain at the moment, their housing criteria are simple. “We only had one wish: no bombs,” Bezkorovaina said. “That was the only wish, just safety.”
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