April 2017

A headline 4.5 percent unemployment rate shouts “prosperity,” but few believe it. That’s because too many able-bodied Americans opt out of work. Over 20 million prime working-age Americans wake up each morning, smell the coffee, and then sit down again till lunch. Although sofa-dwelling Millennials may help Xbox and PlayStation sales, the nation suffers. The Labor Participation Rate has dropped down to levels not seen since the 1970s, and a record 9 million collect disability.

Home-sharing service Airbnb has assembled an in-house humanitarian team headed by designer Cameron Sinclair, to help it achieve its aim of providing temporary housing for 100,000 people within five years.

Dezeen understands that Sinclair, who previously co-founded Architecture for Humanity and later worked for Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s humanitarian charity the Jolie-Pitt Foundation, has been working with the San Francisco startup for around a year, driving a series of pilot projects and gearing up for an official launch of the team this summer.