Top bunk. My folks invited someone to stay with us when I was in high school and they slept four feet above me.

Can’t say I’d be so generous as to invite a stranger into my house like that as an adult. Maybe. I would certainly help with other sorts of disaster relief but it’s tough for me to envision a situation in which I would open my home.

When the Ukraine war kicked off I called the Ukrainian embassy in my country and let them know that my upstairs bedrooms were empty, and that if they could get the people to the US, I could house some. Then I called all of my representatives and senators and asked for refugee status for Ukrainian citizens.

In the end because of political fuckery I didn’t end up hosting any Ukrainians, but my coworker who’s from Ukraine was able to get her family over here.

Hosted refugees.

When Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine started in late feb 2022 we (Swedes) watched in horror as the people walked for days to get to southern Poland where the towns quickly tried to set them up with tents and basic services, looking for ways they could then move on within the EU.

My wife took the decision that she wanted to help, in any way possible, and jumped in the car. She drove for 14 hours, slept in the car, picked up two families (mother/daughters) and brought them back here to Sweden. One of them we then housed in our guest house for a year before they decided that it was safe “enough” for them to move back to their home town.

We had the opportunity and possibility. Not everyone has, the important part is to act in any way you can.

For me, the closest was volunteering at a local non-profit that provides temporary housing to immigrants who are released from the local detention center and may not even know where the hell they are. They bus them in from Texas (we are in Colorado) and detain them here. Casa de Paz is the name of the non-profit in case anyone feels generous. They do amazing work and provide much-needed services and tons of empathy for the people they serve.

I let my cousin stay a week with me when his wife kicked him out.

My mother used to volunteer to help a family of Kurds set up their life in Germany. Last I heard they started their own business. They still keep in touch.

My son helped organise a donation collection for Ukrainian refugees that arrived in our town.

closest was two Belgian travelers who were SOL and money in Beijing, so I let them crash in an unused classroom for a few days in my school and take showers and wash everything in the staff bathroom and they were real happy.

I’m a millennial, I’ve been on the verge of homelessness myself my entire adulthood. In my adult life a full time job at minimum wage has never been enough to rent a studio apartment nearly anywhere in the country. Not once in my life have I have enough to really live on my own, have a choice about where I live, or didn’t have raising rents pushing me to move elsewhere. I doubt I’m the only one who has had such deep lack of stability that the idea of hosting refugees (or anyone else for that matter) has been purely a fucking pipe dream.

That being said, I have dreamed of being able to take care of those I know who are struggling, but I have been denied every opportunity due to struggling myself.

I registered as an auntie on r/auntienetwork. Haven’t been needed in that capacity yet, but my door is open. Speaking of… is there a similar community here? If not, would there be an interest in spinning something like that up?