SUMMARY

HelpStays provides access to emergency services to a database of available private accommodation.

USE CASE

Some areas are particularly prone to natural disasters. In the case of such an emergency, whether it be a flood, a bushfire or a cyclone, trained volunteers are crucial - they save lives, and put lives back together. Emergency services, such as the SES, have logistics crews who try to sort out provisions for self sufficiency: food, water, and accommodation (generally tents). As such, volunteers are generally only available in the short-term. But what if you live in one of these areas..? Would you be willing to provide a spare bed to a volunteer?

DESCRIPTION

As a home owner, with a spare room, you can register available bed(s) on the Homestays website. All the site requires is your contact details, how many beds you have and how long you would be willing to have a volunteer stay for.

As an NGO, you can request access to the database. Only legitimate organisations will be given access to ensure that only legitimate volunteers are placed in peoples homes.

Homestays is a bare-bones rails application. It is cloud-hosted, so it requires minimal administrative attention. We're currently looking at using geokit-rails to translate addresses to latitude and longitude.

In the event of an emergency, the NGO can look up the affected area to see what homes (and how many beds) are available. The logistics person can call home owners directly to place their volunteers.