Knight Cities Challenge winner The Exchange House opened its doors on Feb. 28 in Akron, Ohio, with a gathering that welcomed residents from across the city as it began offering visitors the opportunity to experience the culture of the Bhutanese community in the North Hill neighborhood.

When Jason Roberts, co-founder of Better Block, an organization that helps cities build more vibrant neighborhoods, visited North Hill in 2015, he was introduced to the cooking and crafts of the Bhutanese refugee community, and even attended a baby-naming ceremony that he describes as one of the highlights. He remembers saying, “Man, it’s crazy that this is in your own backyard. People would spend thousands of dollars and fly a thousand miles to experience the culture that’s right here.”

However, Roberts also learned the neighborhood – and Akron in general – had an excess of empty housing stock caused by population loss.

Since members of the Better Block team usually stay in Airbnb accommodations when they travel, they began to form an idea. What if the purchase and rehab of a vacant house could be designed in a way that would allow for community gatherings on the main floor, while having rooms available for rent on Airbnb on the second floor, and an office or living space on the top floor? Then travelers could experience the culture that Roberts enjoyed during his stay in Akron.

When the Knight Cities Challenge launched in 2014, Roberts applied for funding to bring the idea to life and was one of the winners. The project received $155,000 in funding from Knight in 2015.

Krista Nightengale, Better Block’s managing director, said that after seeing an article about the project, Airbnb reached out to them. “This is exactly what we are trying to do with Airbnb. This is the exact sort of thing we want it to be,” Nightengale recalled the conversation.

Shortly thereafter, the company launched their “We Accept” campaign with a Super Bowl ad that features a rotation of faces from people of different ethnicities and genders to form one face. The ad was one of several responses from Airbnb after it learned that guests who had made reservations on its website had suffered racial discrimination. Airbnb enacted an anti-discrimination policy, changed its booking and hiring practices, and launched a diversity awareness campaign. Both the ad and Exchange House emphasize that Airbnb community members can experience a culture different than their own with each stay.  

Travelers spending their nights at Exchange House will get a taste of the diversity Akron has to offer. The Bhutanese community plans to use the main floor for English language classes, skills training and other community events. There are three rooms listed as “Little Bhutan in Akron” on Airbnb, each at $27 a night. Guests have shared access to a kitchen, one full bath, one half bath, and a wireless internet connection.

Naresh Subba, a member of the Bhutanese Association and owner of the neighborhood grocery store located across the street from the house, hopes it will become a place for exchanging ideas and cultures, as the name suggests. The association intends to use the space for its board and community meetings. However, Subba believes public events held at the house will help to connect the refugee and immigrant community with Akron natives.

“The more we have interactions, discussions, talk to each other, that’s how we get to know each other more and more,” said Subba.

“Everyone has inherent biases and prejudices until they usually meet someone, right?” asked Roberts. However, he hopes that through events being held at The Exchange House that native Akronites as well as travelers will get to meet new people and have experiences that will help to begin peeling away those prejudices.

Roberts also hopes that as the house becomes a fixture community members will view it as an income-generating plan that other organizations can replicate. “You have so many interesting refugee communities here that you could have a Congolese house, you could have a Burmese house, you could have a Syrian house,” said Roberts.

Roger Riddle is an Akron-based freelance writer and deejay. Email him via [email protected], and follow him on Twitter @OccupyYouriPod.