As the conflict in Ukraine escalated last month, members of Dallas’ short-term rental community circled the wagons — and the vacant properties — and stepped up to help.
Shelby Fletcher, who launched an STR management business Perfect Tenant LLC in 2018, joined the dialogue immediately. She rallied others in the Dallas Short-Term Rental Alliance, where she serves as president.
Right away she heard from a family in need.
“The next-door neighbor of one of [the rentals I manage] reached out because one of his co-workers is Ukrainian, and her family had crossed the border into Poland. They had flights to Dallas arriving in a few days,” Fletcher said. “They needed a safe and comfortable place to regroup.”
A Ukrainian mother with three children moved into the rental property near Love Field in early March.
“They came with relatively little, but the community has rallied around them,” Fletcher said.
Good Neighbors
Alexa Nota, chief operating officer and co-founder of Rent Responsibly, also joined the effort to provide temporary housing to those who fled Ukraine.
“Like the rest of the world, our hearts have been with Ukraine these last few weeks,” Nota wrote in an email. “At its foundation, the beauty of travel is the human connection and cultural exchange that comes only by looking through someone else’s literal and figurative windows. It’s this pulling back of the curtain to other views and ways of life that makes our industry uniquely and powerfully positioned to respond to crises at home and abroad.”
Nota and her team created a resource hub for those looking to support Ukrainian refugees.
“Rent Responsibly is nothing if not an ardent champion for our shared community bound by good neighborliness,” Nota said. “We have been inspired by our community’s swift response to help our neighbors in Ukraine by doing what we do best: providing hospitality any and every way we can.”
What’s Next
Short-term rental hosts are particularly well-positioned to help as the crisis continues, Fletcher explained.
She’s talked to Refugee Services of Texas and Catholic Relief Services to offer assistance and said she is trying to coordinate more stays as the need arises.
“One great option [for those who want to help] is getting on the mailing list for the Dallas Short-Term Rental Alliance to receive communications about housing needs as we receive them,” she said. “It’s a streamlined way to coordinate housing availability with need as we learn of it. I’m really proud of how our community jumped into action for this, as well as how we’ve reacted to other housing needs in the past, including displaced Dallas families during the huge freeze of 2021.”
Going forward, Fletcher said she recognizes DFW’s Ukrainian guests may need assistance for quite some time.
“I feel so grateful for the opportunity to offer shelter to this family,” she said. “In times of crisis, there is an urge to help. I’m grateful for the ability to contribute to a family’s peace and safety in a small way during this difficult time. I am eager to help more families find housing.”
