Internet Giving Homeless a Home

Wired is reporting that many individuals currently without permanent housing still manage to stay connected via a cellphone, laptop, or some other gadget. Many homeless have email addresses and find that it offers them a way to get their foot back in the door of 'normal' society. From the article: "Hellerich slept on benches but she frequented a women's shelter with a cluster of internet-connected computers used mostly by the children who arrived at the safe house with their mothers. She started blogging and conducting a business. As an independent internet marketer, she was able to maintain bank accounts, nurse existing client connections and forge new business relationships. The business brought in only about $100 a month, but that was enough to help get her life back on track."

really?

[ElephanTS]

The woman in the TFA wasn't exactly homeless homeless. She was staying in a shelter and so able to keep clean and not smell of pee, have clean clothes and so on. I don't imagine anyone going off to 'forge new business relationships' if they hadn't brushed their teeth for a week so I'd say the general 'technology is so great it evens rescues the homeless' message is hype. Even charging up your cell isn't going to be easy when you're sleeping under a bridge.

Re:Homeless

[246o1]

"They are the alcoholics, the drug addicts, the mentally insane. Their only goal in life is their next drink. You can institutionalize them or let them be on the street, but you can't help them."

I have no idea how a comment this odious got modded as insightful. There are services available that can and DO help members of all three of those groups recover and lead better, functional lives. While some mental illnesses may as yet be untreatable, many of the homeless in America could no doubt be helped were the medical system remotely responsive to the needs of the poor. Likewise, drug addicts and alcoholics recover all the time, it's such a normal part of society that I'm amazed that you would even say something like this. Perhaps it's different for you, but I know people who have recovered from such situations and gone on to have productive lives. Some people call them 'family,' and I think it's disgusting that you can dismiss them like that. Have you ever given a guy a sandwich and had it thrown back at you? Just because some people out there are going to use money to feed there addictions doesn't mean that all compassion for the homeless is wasted. Have a fucking heart.

Re:Homeless

[ignacionyc]

Yeah, I give food to homeless all the time. druggies and alchies, they eat it. There are programs in nyc to distribute food to the homeless, by going out into the streets and subways... I've never seen anyone turn down food. Its not quite right to say that you can't help group 2. I've known some group 2'ers who have gotten themselves together, i know group 1ers who became group 2ers... alchoholism, drugs, depression... all easy to get fucked up by when you're out on the streets. The idea that only group 1 can reintegrate and 2 can't isn't entirely accurate, Mitchel Duniere has shown in his ethnographic study of street vendors on 6th avenue between 8th and west 4th in manhattan how what you call group one'ers can help and mentor group 2'ers and help them get clean and help them start becoming self-sufficient by giving them jobs (manning book tables, scavenging, saving table spaces overnight. Many number 2s were once number 1s. Of course you can't help everyone, and of course some people relapse.. but people with homes relapse as well. The homeless of any kind don't always rely on the housed for help, a lot of them help each other or themselves. This isn't always the case I agree, but many times it is.

Re:Quite possibly, yes.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd say a 'liveable wage' is more around 25k a year - but that also depends on where you live. However, people say 'just get a better job', however when I think about it

- We still need people to run gas stations, clean up our buildings, serve us coffee and food, sell our clothes, ask us 'would you like fries with that?', to clean up the parks, pick up trash and help little kids cross the street on the way to school.

There are loads of jobs which pay minimum wage, however they are jobs that need to be done - or stuff would just start to fall to pieces. Should people working these jobs be forced to hold 2-3 jobs and work 60-80 hour work weeks while getting paid peanuts simply because they may not be 'glamorous jobs'

Minimum wage should be able to provide a sustainable level of living without having to work multiple jobs and work so many hours that the only time you have home is the time your sleeping before running to the next shift.

Homeless Guy Blog

[mixonic]

I haven't RTFA, but I've been a fan of the Homeless Guy blog for a while now (he mentions being included in the Wired article). His site is at http://thehomelessguy.blogspot.com/ [blogspot.com], he's living in Nashville, TN right now. He has many enlightening comments on who makes up the homeless population, how politics and "aid" affect them, and the impact of stereotypes. A good read.

-mix

It should be illegal to hire people for a pittance

[Valdrax]

In India, there are people stuck in a position known as debt bondage. [injusticeline.com] Basically, you provide shelter and food for someone in exchange for debt and pay them so little that they can never work it off. It's not a system any sane and humane person would wish for our culture to emulate.

We used to do so something similar in the US in company towns where everything was owned by the company you worked for and you were only paid in money good at the company store. Deductions were made from your paycheck before you received it such that you never actually saw any money. If you wanted to leave a company town, you had to do so penniless and homeles.

The Pullman strike happened over these conditions. At the time, many people pointed out that the housing Lake Calumet was nicer than average and would say that these people were helped by entering into debt bondage. However, the lack of freedom to anywhere else without becoming a vagrant was oppressive and wrong.

The argument that someone, somewhere is more desperate than your current workers is never an excuse for stringing people along for the absolute minimum that you can give them while demanding that they be grateful for it. That's called the race to the bottom, and its the sport of plutocrats everywhere. A fair minimum wage only eliminates the worst kind of menial jobs and gives people the purchasing power to buy the goods that help generate jobs elsewhere.