Airbnb’s accommodation charity is offering 20,000 beds to refugees from Afghanistan, but at the same time the company partakes in the PR move to support refugees, the city where the company is headquartered, San Francisco, is struggling with a massive homelessness crisis.
In general, Democrat-run California has the worst homeless crisis in the United States, coupled with the highest inequality, a situation that has only been further perpetuated by the big tech companies like Airbnb that call the state home.
The company, known for its woke politics, says it will accommodate Afghans in various places around the world free of charge, including the United States, and while the company has donated millions to both refugee and homelessness causes, it has never taken the step of actually housing the homeless, many of which are U.S. veterans of the war in Afghanistan.
The question as to why Airbnb has never allowed America’s homeless to stay in residences while putting Afghans first is worth asking, as Airbnb has been implicated in exacerbating the homeless crisis in urban centers around the world. Although the reasons for homelessness are multifaceted, Airbnb is known to have broadly led to reduced available housing in neighborhoods and higher rents, as a significant amount of apartments and houses are taken off the market and converted into accommodations for tourists.
The argument that the homeless may pose a threat to homeowners is perhaps a valid one, but the fact is that not all people who are homeless have mental health issues that would preclude them from staying in an Airbnb residence. At the same time, refugees from Afghanistan have extremely high rates of mental health issues, including post-traumatic stress syndrome. A major study in Sweden found refugees suffer high rates of schizophrenia and other serious mental disorders.
In many ways, Afghan refugees have it better than the homeless population of the United States. Courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer, most Afghan refugees will have access to housing, education, and other social benefits that are often out of reach to American citizens, including U.S. veterans, with tens of thousands of them facing homelessness.
Airbnb Director Brian Chesky justified the decision with the need to help resolve one of today’s biggest humanitarian crises. He says he hopes this will inspire other managers to get involved in helping the Afghans, too, because, according to him, there is not much time.
Much like President Joe Biden’s decision that Americans would not have priority over Afghans fleeing Kabul, the woke corporations that now greatly run our society will never put Americans first either. It all fits a trend that has resulted in elites being able to pat themselves on the back for what they believe to be their superior morality while the U.S. sinks deeper into poverty and division.
Title image: Migrants, mainly coming from Afghanistan, queue for lunch at a deportation center in the Turkish city of Van that borders Iran, Turkey, Sunday. Aug. 22, 2021. Traffic on this key migration route from central Asia to Europe has remained relatively stable compared to previous years. But European countries, as well as Turkey, fear the sudden return of Taliban rule in Afghanistan could change that. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
