The Spare Room Registry

Emergency housing has a strange asymmetry: the supply appears instantly - goodwill always does - but the trust infrastructure doesn't. Verification during a crisis is impossible, so the gyms fill up while the spare rooms stay empty.

The Registry moves every slow step to before: background checks, home standards, host training, and a standing match between each registered room and the school district it can absorb children from. Hosts renew yearly like blood donors. The database sleeps until the siren, and then the only thing left to do is the one thing that can't be pre-done: the knock on the door.