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."

Advertising opportunities

[LiquidCoooled]

Wake up scuttle, you can't run a story like this without linking to thinkgeek!

There's no place like 127.0.0.1 [thinkgeek.com]

In all seriousness, there are many homeless folks in this world not all of them have the opportunity to get back on their feet.

Most homeless people aren't there by choice and there are lots of folks who are just 1 pay check away from joining them, spare a thought when your walking around town and if you have some change give generously.

Re:wait

[Looke]

What's the saying ... "Give a man a fish, and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and you have fed him for a lifetime." We're talking about getting a life back on track here.

Re:wait

[notaspunkymonkey]

In the UK lots of homless people sell a magazine called the Big issue as a method of making some money.. I am not sure if this is something which is done in the states - but they buy the magazines at say 25 pence each and sell then for £1 allowing them to make 75p per magazine sold - this is done to help them get back up and running again. Some of these people though don't look like they need to be selling the magazines - there is a guy who sells this magazine near my office who is always decked out in the latest running shoes which much cost £100 - I can't help but think that we often help the wrong people.

Re:wait

[Joebert]

I think it's "Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, & you just traded a paying customer for a competitor"

Re:Advertising opportunities

[PixelPirate]

While I agree with your sentiment, I must respectively disagree. I worked in one of the largest homeless shelters in the city in which I live and I'll give you a couple of snapshots.

Many of the clients (as they were referred to as) often faced addictions and/or mental issues. Often times, living on the street was a matter of their choice -- they didn't trust anyone enough to follow them into a building. Likewise, when people say "give a bit of spare change", this is often the worst advice that can be given as much of that money will go directly into feeding their addiction. It is far better to offer to buy them a coffee, or recommend them to a shelter. Of course, I live in Canada, so it may very well be different in the United States of America...


-PixelPirate

Re:Advertising opportunities

[Ohreally_factor]

Yeah, this article is pretty misleading, containing a handful of anecdotes while there are millions of homeless people worldwide, and hundreds of thousands in the US (one count [usatoday.com] is at over 700,000. I find it hard to believe that the majority of those people have email addresses that they use on a regular basis to improve their lives to any significant degree. I find it hard to believe that the majority of them have laptops or use their cell phones to browse the web. The article repeatedly uses the word "many", but doesn't tell us what numbers they mean by "many".

Re:really?

[Ohreally_factor]

The article specifically stated that she was sleeping on benches and that she went to the shelter for internet access. But beyond that, how can you equate living in a shelter with having a home?

Quite possibly, yes.

[TheNoxx]

Well, that's the thing. Extreme capitalism is just another form of extreme opression: work like a dog and do what you're told, or be homeless. That's the biggest problem with not having a liveable minimum wage... everyone lives in fear of losing their paycheck.

Re:Advertising opportunities

[Lord Kano]

I've given to the homeless. When things are going especially well for me, I'll give more. I heard an idea that I think is fantastic. Some people by gift certificates for restaurants and when a homeless person asks for "money for food" they give the gift certificates. Someone who really just wants to eat with be greatful. Someone who was planning on buying a bottle of hooch, will not be able to get over on you.

LK

Re:Advertising opportunities

[LiquidCoooled]

I live in England and I agree with your coffee/advice line.
Whenever I have some time (just meandering around shopping etc) I will stop and talk to some of the folks and most are happy to sit and have a cuppa (sometimes its the first hot thing they have had all day).

In England we have a magazine called The Big Issue [bigissue.com] which is sold by agents who are homeless or at risk of being.
They purchase the magazine at wholesale price (60p) and sell to the public keeping the difference.

I usually pay £2 per issue (even though the cover price is £1.40) purely out of respect for them getting of their arses and doing something to solve the problem.

I am less tolerant towards outright begging.

Homeless

[timbennett]

The group we lump together as homeless are really at least 2 distinct groups. Group 1 are individuals and families who lack a support network such as family or friends, or may just be too proud to impose upon them. These people can be given a helping hand and can re-integrate into society. Group 2 are the chronic homeless. 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. And for every yuppie do-gooder out there who wants to help them, please don't ever give a homeless person money. There are extensive networks run by churches and non-profit groups to distribute food to the hungry. There are no programs to distribute cheap vodka. That requires do-gooders to give them money to purchase the liquor. Give the homeless guy in a park a sandwhich, he's liable to throw it back at you. He'll never say no to the quarter though. Funny huh?

Bunkum

[EMacAonghusa]

What does "many" mean? Is it even a dozen? Out of the hundreds of thousands (millions?) of people living on the streets across the US & Europe? Many of these people have barely 2 cents to rub together for food, they ain't blogging, they ain't emailing and they ain't staying connected via cellphone ... Some of them have alcohol problems, some of them drug problems, some suffer from depression or other such problems, and their first concern is living to tomorrow.
As someone mentioned it's a hype story, stuff like this shouldn't be published. Fair dues to anybody who can get off the streets, but any story focussing on homeless should be looking at the majourity (99.9%) who are STILL on the streets and need help.
Rant over.

Re:Advertising opportunities

[CastrTroy]

That's great advice, just make sure you pick restaurants that won't have problems accepting homeless people as patrons. You'll probably be better off doing this, as you'll get more bang for your buck. This is also why you're better off giving money/provisions to your local food bank or soup kitchen. They have direct access to the people who need it, and they make sure it isn't being spent on alcohol or drugs. It also ensures that money goes to people who need it. I heard a story about a woman who begged on the streets of New York, and then drove home in her lincoln town car at the end of the day. She was making $500 a day just begging on the streets. It was on a prominent news show, I think 20/20 or dateline, So I tend to believe it.

Re:Advertising opportunities

[eraserewind]

until they sell it at a fraction of face value to some black marketeer.

Re:Quite possibly, yes.

[JesseMcDonald]

Well, that's the thing. Extreme capitalism is just another form of extreme opression [sic]: work like a dog and do what you're told, or be homeless. That's the biggest problem with not having a liveable minimum wage... everyone lives in fear of losing their paycheck.

Are you trying to say that you believe someone else (perhaps everyone else?) owes you a "living wage"? On what basis do you come to that conclusion?

All that minimum wages do is eliminate the marginal jobs, increasing unemployment. Some people do benefit -- those who were already productive to a greater extent than the new minimum wage, or who possess the skills and motivation to become more productive. The rest, no longer cost-effective to employ, will simply be laid off. Since productivity is often correlated with education, and education with wealth, minimum wages tend to eliminate the low-tech and unskilled positions generally held by the very people you're trying to benefit.

Don't let that stop you, though. Why not raise the minimum? While you're at it, why not just set the minimum at a real living wage -- like $75,000 or $100,000/yr.? Wouldn't that make everyone better off? (Obviously not, but I'll leave you to contemplate why this is, and how it applies to the problem of minimum wages in general.)

Re:Homeless

[Jellybob]

I'm with 246o1 on this one, as one of my best friends spent several years sleeping on benches in London, and had a major drink and drug problem, and her kids were taken into care - she finished college a couple of years ago, and is now working for a security firm while she goes through University, and has her own flat.

Anyone can be helped, they just need to want that help. I'm not saying it's easy, but it is most definately possible, and an inspiration for anybody who actually talks to people who havn't had the easy life so many of us are used to.

Re:Quite possibly, yes.

[kthejoker]

Great in theory, hilarious in reality.

I love that idea that if minimum wage was raised, Wal-Mart would be forced to cut workers, rather than reduce their huge profit line to meet the new line.

If I have one worker, and I pay him $15,000 a year, and I make a profit of $60,000 a year, and the government raises his minimum wage to $20,000 a year, I can still make a big profit and afford him.

That is the dichotomy which is nonexistent in that silly libertarian approach to the minimum wage. If minimum wage is raised, Wal-Mart doesn't have to cut marginalized jobs. They can also raise the costs of their products, or *gasp* not profit *as much* as they were. Profit is still profit. If you can pay a certain wage and make a profit, then that wage is not detrimental to the job market. Despite the Kool-Aid you're selling.

Of course the goal is to maximize profit, but it's maximizing it *under certain conditions*, which include providing your workers with a livable wage. If the only reason Wal-Mart executives take home huge paychecks (executive : laborer pay ratios are at an all-time high) and I have cheap goods at Wal-Mart is because they aren't paying their workers a livable wage, that's not a sufficient reason to continue paying their workers that same wage.

The truth (ie reality, not econ 101 theory) is that we have been on a major trend of reverse distribution of wealth - the rich get richer, the poor get poorer - for nearly 15 years in America. To suggest that somehow companies *won't have the money* to pay any additional wages forced upon them by Congress - and will have to cut jobs rather than pay their workers more - is so disingenuous as to be outrageous.

Can we fix more of the problem on-line?

[smilindog2000]

To quote Franklin D. Roosevelt:

        "Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. This is no unsolvable problem if we face it wisely and courageously."

With the enormous power we have with the Internet, we could help bring together those people looking for work and those who need their services. It seems to me that the sticking point is usually that neither of them has any money. But, if they could trade some sort of on-line IOUs, and try to honor them, perhaps there is some solution.

I'm baffled as to how to go about it, but so many people simply looking for work is wrong. If a man is willing to offer his labor, there are needs out there to be filled. To leave him idle wastes his talents and damages his pride.

Re:Advertising opportunities

[LEgregius]

I've known a fair number of homeless people in my lifetime. To my knowledge, only one of them had an E-mail address. He used to check it in the public library. Sadly, he was the sort that didn't really want to get back on his feet. He had jobs every so often, but he wouldn't work hard, and he'd act like he was better than everyone else, so he'd get fired. It's too bad, he was nice guy and very intelligent. Last time I saw him, he was living in a little boat housing on the property of someone I know. He has no electricity and his wooden roof leaks. He seems to be satified with that.

Internet for the Rest of Us

[Doc Ruby]

"an independent internet marketer
[...]
But she lives in fear that at any point, circumstances could throw her back into the urban wilderness."

Like if she gets busted for spamming?

Homeless spammers. Blade Runner arrives ahead of schedule.

Re:Advertising opportunities

[(A)*(B)!0_-]

"That said, have you ever been stuck for cash yourself? It doesn't take much, start with some grubby clothes and need of a shower, say, thanks to some house cleaning your in the middle of; then park in the wrong place for few couple minutes to perform a quick drop off errand, come back and find your car towed with your wallet & cellphone inside --- and instantly you can become reduced to begging for quarters to make a phone call, complete with a 'lame sob story' about how you just need bus fare to get accross town to the impound lot, or quarters to phone some friends to come get you... and you pretty much blend right in."

I don't park illegally and I don't leave my wallet in my car.

Re:Advertising opportunities

[ElleyKitten]

Of course they'll find another way to feed their addiction, but there's no reason you should feed it. There's much better uses of your money.

Re:Advertising opportunities

[Anonymous Coward]

eraserewind makes a very valid point that I think the majority of people don't think about. If someone is addicted to drugs they won't stop doing drugs just because people on the street don't give them spare change. They will sell your gift certificates to a drug dealer in exchange for a hit. If they don't get enough change they may break into a car, steal a cell phone and sell it for money for a hit (as an example, I'm not saying all homeless people do this).
If you want to give money to someone on the street that's great, go ahead. Don't think for a second that you have any right to decide what they can and can't do with it.

Brendan
(sorry for posting as an A.C. but this is the first time I've ever posted on /.)

Re:Advertising opportunities

[Anonymous Coward]

Most homeless people aren't there by choice and there are lots of folks who are just 1 pay check away from joining them, spare a thought when your walking around town and if you have some change give generously.

I do spare them "a thought". I tell them to get a bloody job like everyone else, and to quit bothering me. You see, I do know what it's like to be without a paycheque: it sucks, and that's why you have to hustle to get a new one.

When I was out of work during the .com crash (I quit my 9-5 programming job for ethical reasons, at probably the worst possible time), I worked from 7am to 6:30 pm, four days a week, working at a recycling plant, sorting out the trash from the recyclables. I stood in one place for 10.5 hours/day, my arms were constantly moving trying to keep up with the backlog, there were crushed bottles, dirt, and huge chunks of cardboard being slid down at me on a constant basis. It was hard work, for low pay. Five minutes of work made my back ache enough that I wished I was somewhere else. I kept that job for four months, until I found a new one; factory work again, but with better working conditions, until I got a job back in IT again.

If I can spend 44 hours a week working my ass off to make a living, well, so can they. If I survive eating 20 lb sacks of rice as my main food (like I had to as a student, to put myself through colledge), well, so can they.

I work for my money. It angers me when people who are too lazy to work demand my time and attention just so they can try to conn me out of my hard-earned cash. It's not like we don't have provisions for people who are trying and just caught a few bad breaks: we have insurance for just about anything you care to name. But wait: perhaps that's not enough. Perhaps we should all pitch in, and throw in a few bucks into a collective pool to help out people who were unlucky enoughh to lose their jobs, just out of bad luck. We could call it "unemployment insurance"! Wait: do we have that already?!?

But wait, maybe we should do more. Maybe we should just make up another pool of money, and hand it out to people so they don't starve. We could call it a "social welfare program"! Oh, do we have that already, too?!?

In short, "homeless" people are people who:
(a) failed to keep their old job,
(b) failed to find a new job, even one at McDonalds, before their unemployment insurance ran out,
(c) failed to find a new job, even one at McDonalds, before their welfare ran out,
and
(d) are now stealing sleeping space from the public and private sectors, because of their failures above. These are the people who piss all over the walls of my building; who sneak into buildings to sleep in the lobby; who just don't respect or contribute to society like they're supposed to. They're leeches who prey on other people's good nature.

So, tell me again, why should I shell out for people who both literally and figurative piss all over the things I value in this world?

Re:Advertising opportunities

[SydShamino]

Don't think for a second that you have any right to decide what they can and can't do with it.

Oh, I have a right to control it. It's my charitable donation; I can dictate how it is used or not donate at all. However, I can't enforce that choice, and I know it. As a result, I tend to give nothing to the homeless I see, and instead donate to shelters directly. That makes me feel just as good, and then I have no qualms with ignoring the beggars at every street corner in town.

On the other hand, what is the black market street value for a $5 McDonald's gift certificate? Even drug addicts have to eat something, and I could see them live off my gift certificate for a few days, versus maybe $0.50 toward their next hit...

A different way of looking at this

[missing000]

There is a very strong tendency to persecute the masses of homeless / desperate people in our cities based upon a few (often unsubstantiated) stories of malfeasance.

That said, there is also an important principal which should not be overlooked here; there are good and bad ways to deal with institutional failures of society.

In the case of homeless persons, there are really only a few things one can do which truly help people. Here's what you can do to help:

1. Don't give anyone on the street anything directly. This is the hard one to accept, because you feel obligated to help people in need. The reasons for this are simple. Giving directly is tremendously inefficient. Would you rather pay for one person to maybe eat one meal at a restaurant they will feel uncomfortable in or potentially even contribute to a substance addiction, or would you like to feed 10 people at a soup kitchen where they will also have access to other services?

2. Do give to the soup kitchen / homeless shelters. It's simple and effective. Most shelters have structured giving plans and disclose their policies on religious indoctrination which should be kept to a minimum to encourage participation. I personally won't give to any shelter which requires any religious participation for services, but there are options in my city, so I'd probably change that policy if that was not the case.

3. Seek political changes. This is the only long term solution to the problem. Big cities need to act like small towns when helping those who fall through the cracks. Make the system diverse, distributed, and attractive to those who need help. LA is a counter example; they have spent 30 years learning that centralizing their system and ignoring people makes their city core a terrible place for everyone, not just the homeless. It costs an amazing amount to keep people in jail and fight crime caused by destitution, much more than providing transitional housing and services in the actual communities people live in to begin with.

So really all I'm saying here is we shouldn't focus on the people who somehow "work the system"; instead focus on giving people the tools they need to leave that lifestyle and either get the mental and substance abuse treatment they need or move back into the workforce and better themselves. No doubt there are people who won't / can't do this, but that's no excuse not to help those who are in desperation and willing to work for a better life.

Im Homeless....

[ckeo]

I live in Calgary Alberta... I carry a Toshiba portege 3440CT in my backpack and troll parking garages for wireless signals... because my battery dosnt work so the power outlets are also a necessity... I have no addictions like drinking or drugs.. but I also have no friends or family...
A bad month for `me means living on the streets. tho this is not the first time. I dont go to homeless shelters, nor do I ask people for money. People often stop and offer me money tho... and most tTimes I decline... but as for your money feeding the addictions of the homeless... well... i have to disagree... the majority of panhandlers drink not drugs... druggies have no patience to panhandle.

For myself, I collect pop/beer cans for a living... and do quite well... $50 - $100 dollars a day...
plus stuff like cell phones and stuff that people throw out that are easily resellable.

I dont think many on here know what its like to be homeless and I dont think you should be judging people until you ven been there.. people judge me and assume im homeless so i must be a thief alcoholic or crackhead... im neither.. im just a guy trying to survive... and finish developing my website.