From October 2021 through February 2022, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Salt Lake City supported the resettlement of over 600 Afghan evacuees who now call Utah “home.” Working tirelessly in support of newly arrived Afghan neighbors, IRC staff offered a holistic response to a rapidly increasing number of individuals and families arriving to Utah, ensuring immediate needs were met, families were connected to vital services and programming, and that families arrived in a safe, welcome place to stay while permanent housing was secured.  

With as little as 48-hours of notice before a family would arrive, the IRC in Salt Lake City’s Afghan Placement & Assistance (APA) team worked with over a dozen temporary housing partners, including extended stay hotels as well as Airbnb hosts, to ensure families could begin settling in, cook for themselves, and have a private space of their own while the APA housing team worked to secure permanent housing.  From Midvale to West Valley and Sandy, hotel partners quickly voiced their support, working to learn more about the families who would be visiting. 

Joshua Lloyd, former deputy director of programs, said, “The opportunity to work with new IRC staff who walked into APA and started working on this challenging effort [was the greatest thing to witness to the Afghan response program].” Joshua led out on the implementation of the IRC’s local response in support of Afghan evacuees arriving to Utah, “It was great to have the opportunity to work with the Afghan community pretty intensively to meet the needs and to witness the incredible patience and perseverance of those Afghans who have arrived in our community under very trying circumstances.” 

Quote: It was great to have the opportunity to work with the Afghan Community pretty intensively to meet the needs and to witness the incredible patience and perseverance of those Afghans who have arrived in our community under very trying circumstances.
Quote from Joshua Lloyd, former Deputy Director of Programs.

Hotel partners stepped in immediately to provide temporary housing for our newly arrived neighbors and offer support in other ways. Sandra Calata, Assistant General Manager at Residence Inn in Sandy, worked with Joshua to coordinate temporary housing stays: “The International Rescue Committee reached out to us, and we understood that there was a need. We were happy to help,” said Sandra. Welcoming people who face challenging circumstances are familiar to the team at the Residence Inn.  A number of years back, Sandra remembers welcoming people from Nepal who had fled their country and later employing some of them herself. “These people had to drop everything they knew and they had no choice in the matter. This is our way of being a community partner to them,” Sandra said.  

Receiving support from both hotel partners and Airbnb hosts proved essential to emergency resettlement efforts for Afghan families. By supporting with temporary housing, this act of kindness showed love and respect for their new Afghan neighbors. On average, each family would stay in temporary housing for three months. It was imperative to find partners that would provide a comfortable environment for families staying temporarily, especially those still learning about their new community and working to build English language skills. 

The IRC in Salt Lake City continues to be grateful for the generous community support provided, including volunteer time, much-needed supply donations, and monetary contributions, in support of Afghan evacuees. “There is always a dynamic of people wanting to interact directly, which was not possible for the IRC to support in the short term, but community members’ trust and desire to help through providing us resources to support our clients was very heartening,” said Joshua.  

Learn more about partnering in support of the IRC in Salt Lake City and the communities served, check out our Partner Engagement Hub »