Safe Stay

SafeStay is a web app connecting unhoused individuals to safe homes or sponsored hotels, powered by Angular, Node.js APIs, Prisma, and Amadeus hotel data.

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SafeStay

Project Summary

SafeStay is a web app harnessing technology to address homelessness with compassion and action. The webapp connects unhoused individuals with immediate, safe shelter options while empowering the community to directly support them.

Through SafeStay, individuals can request a hotel stay or apply to be hosted in a home, while sponsors can choose to fund stays or open their doors. This dual-sided model provides rapid relief, fosters shared responsibility, and strengthens community connections.

By offering both immediate shelter and pathways to stability, SafeStay proves that technology can be a lifeline, transforming empathy into impact and helping rebuild lives.

How it Works

  • Frontend: Built with Angular 17, featuring a clean, responsive design.

    • Uses Angular’s new signal() feature for reactive state management, creating a fast and dynamic UI.
    • Routes set up for registration, login, home listings, and request forms.
    • Hosts can post homes, and guests can submit requests for stays through a simple interface.

  • Backend: Powered by Node.js + Express.

    • Exposes a REST API for registration, login, housing requests, and Amadeus API calls.
    • Authentication uses JWTs (JSON Web Tokens) with passwords securely hashed using bcrypt.
    • Role-based access ensures guests and hosts have appropriate permissions.

  • Database: PostgreSQL + Prisma ORM.

    • Prisma handles schema definition, migrations, and type-safe queries.
    • Database schema includes users, homes, and requests, linking requests to either a SafeStay home or a hotel offer.

  • Amadeus Integration:

    • OAuth2 authentication to securely connect with the Amadeus Hotel API.
    • Pulls live hotel availability by city code and dates.
    • Provides fallback hotel options when no homes are available.
    • Challenges solved: handling free-tier API rate limits and parsing deeply nested JSON responses.

From end to end, SafeStay ties together a modern frontend, a secure backend, a relational database, and a live third-party API. It’s production-ready in structure, but also hackathon-friendly in speed of development. Most importantly, it blends real technical depth — auth, APIs, and database design — with a mission-driven goal of helping people find safe housing when they need it most.

Impact

Everyone deserves to feel safe, supported, and at home — and we are making that possible, one SafeStay at a time.

Homelessness is a pressing issue across the nation, and right here in Tempe, more than 200 of our neighbors are unhoused. In Arizona’s extreme weather, this crisis is not just about housing; it’s about survival. Without access to safe shelter, individuals face life-threatening heat in the summer and daily challenges to their health, safety, and dignity.

Through our partnership with the City of Tempe Mayor’s Youth Advisory Commission (MYAC), SafeStay amplifies the voices of those directly impacted. One youth from Tempe shared:

"I was little when I was homeless, but I think the biggest thing my mother and I could have used was a home. I wish more housing resources were available to us."

SafeStay transforms compassion into action. By sponsoring short-term hotel stays and creating pathways for community members to open their homes, we provide immediate, dignified shelter that helps individuals and families stabilize and begin rebuilding their lives.

Each SafeStay isn’t just a roof for the night — it’s a step toward restoring hope, dignity, and opportunity. With every SafeStay, we are proving that community-driven solutions combined with technology can save lives, uplift families, and transform the future of our communities.

MYAC Survey Stats (Tempe Community)

  • 88.5% said they do not believe Tempe is doing enough to address homelessness.
  • 59.3% of youth knew someone who experienced homelessness.
  • 44.4% of youth thought homelessness was rampant or very rampant.

What’s Next

We’re excited to take SafeStay even further:

  • Machine Learning Prioritization:
    Implement ML models to rank requests by urgency, factoring in number of children, dates of need, and other high-impact criteria.

  • Smart Matchmaking:
    Use ML classification to determine whether an application is a good fit for a home based on number of occupants, available dates, and other compatibility factors.

  • Enhanced Security:
    Require all users (hosts, guests, and sponsors) to be fully verified before accessing the app, ensuring trust and safety across the platform.

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