The portal for people thinking of hosting Ukrainian refugees opened on Monday and crashed within a couple of hours because so many people had registered their interest.

Even celebrities are getting involved, with Good Morning Britain presenter Susanna Reid revealing this week that she seriously considered welcoming a Ukrainian refugee into her home, although doesn’t have enough room to host more than one person. 

As the co-founder of the small charity Refugees at Home, which finds rooms for refugees in the UK, the news that so many people were willing to open their houses filled me with joy. 

We set up our charity in 2015, when Syrian refugees were seeking sanctuary in their thousands, inspired by a family history connected to refugees and hosting.

My sister-in-law’s mother was a refugee from Nazi Vienna, my paternal grandparents took in a Kindertransport boy from Berlin and my maternal grandparents hosted a café violinist and his wife, who were also from Vienna.

So we knew opening our houses was a response to refugee arrivals and was something you could do without having to travel to Calais or Lesbos. Plus we were empty-nesters with spare rooms. What could be simpler?

The charity places refugees and asylum-seekers in the homes of generous hosts. We’ve helped refugees from all over the world, including those who escaped the Taliban when it took over Afghanistan last year.

The terrible stories then and the upsurge in sympathy for the Afghans, many of whom had helped British forces, diplomats and businesses and were in most danger for that very reason, led to 1,600 people offering to host in the UK. 

To our grief and chagrin, the complexities of the Home Office’s scheme for placing all those who were air-lifted out in bridging hotels means that we haven’t been able to host any of them. 

And now Ukraine, with its vivid images of Russian invaders inflicting terrible damage on people’s homes, bombing children’s hospitals and inspiring extraordinary resistance, has led to another upsurge in offers to take in some of those fleeing. 

As of 15 March, more than 7,500 people have volunteered through our charity since the invasion on February 24, with more than 1,000 of prospective hosts being in London. 

Hosts vary enormously. They may be empty-nesters or much older into their 80s or 90s. Many have had children at home until recently – either they are away during term time at university, or have moved out of the family home. 

We have families with children and couples before they have a family. We also have a lot of LGBTQ+ hosts with their shared community experience of persecution. 

The downside with the Government’s Homes for Ukraine scheme is that people who are looking to volunteer their spare rooms will have to give the name of the Ukrainian they want to host. If that refugee has no contacts in the UK, they may then find it hard to secure a place to stay. 

Refugees at Home operates very differently – aiming to house people already in the country – so even those who don’t find a use for their accommodation under the Government scheme can get involved with us. 

We’ve already heard from people on their way here. 

There’s the chap whose ex-wife is coming with their child but isn’t going to live with him. Or the woman who is expecting her family of five; four siblings and her mum to arrive any day, but there’s only room in her flat for mum. 

These are real people and this is the brutal reality of the life to come for Ukrainian refugees, desperate to flee from homes that they’d built for years, generations even.

It’s up to us to help.

Other ways you can help Ukrainians

• Donate money to a range of charities online
• Donate clothes and essentials at drop offs across the UK
• Donate food at points in different London boroughs

People who can’t take anyone in but have a background in home assessment – often as a GP, district nurse, social worker, probation officer – can help by volunteering as a home visitor: the person we send round to assess each potential host before accepting them. 

We are going to need more hosts, more home visitors and a larger team to make sure guests are placed safely and appropriately. 

But it’s not just Ukrainians who need our assitance. We need to continue placing and hosting desperate refugees and asylum-seekers from 68 other nations who still need our help. They have fled similar atrocities or dreadful persecution and must not be forgotten in their time of need.

So we welcome applications from potential hosts who live in cities with a spare room or rooms. 

The need for cities may sound restrictive, but it’s because our guests are desperate to stay in places where they might meet others from their community, hear their own language, go to a familiar church, or find the food they are used to. 

Their lives are fractured and placing them in rural environments, often with limited transport and access to English lessons, just adds to the stress. And unhappy, isolated guests, who want to be somewhere else make for difficult placements and hosting experiences.

At the moment we don’t know when many Ukrainians will even make it to the UK. We don’t know useful information like whether newcomers will have the right to work, to claim benefits, or be able to access the NHS. 

But we have had enough anxious emails from Ukrainians still in Ukraine – or in nearby countries – and their families or friends to think there will be hundreds, possibly thousands who may need our help sometime soon.

We are trying to be ready for that but we are a small team dealing with a rather sudden upturn in interest in what we do.

It’s critical that we all think about what we can do, what we can sustain, whether we can really host one person, a couple, a family for what could be quite some time, and then do so if we can and find another way to help if we can’t.

You can find our more about Refugees at Home here

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing [email protected]. 

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