Empty Homes Collaborative: WHY AIRBNB
Written by Maria José Anitua with Genevieve Georget
I was three years old the first time I tried to run away from home. With great dignity, I packed a small suitcase, marched down the stairs to our front entrance and closed the door behind me. It was a humbling experience to stare out into the vast landscape that lived beyond the walls of our house, all alone. Shortly thereafter, as the tears came without permission, my father opened the door to let me back in and from that day forward, we laughed about his rebellious toddler who tried to make a run for it. Although my first attempt to grasp freedom failed three steps from the front door, I continued to dream about building a life all my own and these early memories became part of the foundation by which I understood what it meant to have a home. To be home.
So, when the gates of opportunity finally did open, I happily walked through them with reckless abandon. Looking back, it shouldn’t have come as a complete surprise that I not only ended up going to law school, but I also ended up using that degree to navigate the never-ending contention that occurred between the human side of housing and the toxic side of real estate law.
Legal systemic change and socially responsible housing.
It’s almost laughable how obvious it all is given my history. But I simply couldn’t go any other way. Because behind the dream of having a home, is a litany of obstacles that stand between people and the lives they want to live. There are tax issues and government laws and third-party liabilities. It’s a mess. But it doesn’t have to be that way. And it was the discovery of collaborative law, when I was 52 years old, that helped me to realize this. It was also that discovery that lit a much bigger spark within me. I had the immense luck of crossing paths with J Kim Wright, who have me a copy of Discovering Agreements by Linda Alvarez, dedicated: “To María José, my partner in transforming law. Abrazos Kim”. The impact that Kim, Linda, and that book had on my life is something I will discuss in another article. They have been key in helping me fulfill my calling.
It was the inner energy that started the Empty Homes Collaborative dream.
The dream that says every human is deserving of a home.
The details behind why a toddler would try to leave home with the eagerness of a newly minted explorer has become a faded memory on this long road. But the relevance remains; we seldom land at our life’s work by accident. Rather, we arrive there having answered one of the most meaningful questions life can ask us: What makes my heart break?
This was it for me: The lack of home.
The courts. The contracts. The claw marks left in its wake.
Food. Shelter. Water. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs states that we have basic necessities that need to be met in order to thrive as a species, and with the right technology in the housing market and the right collaboration in the legal field, every displaced human on the planet could have a roof over their head from which to begin anew.
Most importantly of all, those roofs already exist.
In fact, there are more than 100 million empty homes—worldwide—that could be used for this very purpose.
In 2019, I started to feel defeated in my attempts to make a real difference with my work, but it was during those same months that I decided to dig further into the numbers, and it was this research that tethered me to my purpose.
Over the next four years, we collected as much data as possible and as a result, we created the most complete picture of the EHC story by writing our vision for the future. https://ehcollaborative.org/2024/06/17/ehc-paper-published-empty-homes-offer-green-and-just-transition-opportunity/
Figure HM 1.1.2.a: Vacant dwellings in selected countries
Percentage of vacant dwellings, out of the total dwelling stock, 2020 or latest year available
OECD
In April of 2020, I found myself intrigued to see what online vacation rental sites were doing during the lockdowns. This is how I discovered that Airbnb had been using their platform to support refugees in finding urgent and essential housing during their time of need. In December of that same year, this initiative would formally become known as Airbnb.org and, to date, has been able to arrange temporary housing to more than 210,000 refugees.
It is a partnership like this that I now dream about when I close my eyes at night. It is Airbnb’s business model of valuing empty homes while also valuing the homeowner. It is EHC’s vast experience in housing and conflict management. It is CEOs coming together with a mission to make the world a better place.
A project of this magnitude needs partners who need each other.
Admittedly, it’s an ambitious undertaking. For many, the current global mindset has taught us to protect ourselves and our legal system has enabled our division by capitalizing on our fear. But what if there was another way? And what if that way was built around more trust, more compassion, more understanding? What if that way supported our society, supported our environment, and supported our fellow humans?
It’s possible. All of it. And collaborative law makes it possible.
If that fearless three-year-old girl taught me anything; it’s that we can’t do it alone. We need each other. As humans, as organizations, as leaders. If we are going to make a profound difference, then we are going to need to do it together. Between collaborative law and the hospitality industry, we have the opportunity to innovate at a scale that has never fully been done before.
Because it is only together, with the right partners, that we start to see what is truly possible. It is together, alongside partners like Toshiba and three universities throughout the United Kingdom—all specializing in digital thinking tools for depolarization—that awareness is growing around the opportunities presented by empty homes.
And it is together that we can give others not only a house…but a home.
For in-depth data from the Empty Homes Collaborative, please visit https://ehcollaborative.org
