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."

Comments

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

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: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 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: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 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.

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: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: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: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.

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?

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.

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.

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.