Open lippytak opened 10 years ago
<3 "that isn't patronizing and offensive"
"Can we all just stop for a moment to recognize that every homeless person in this thread has a cell phone?"
That's interesting.
On Thu, May 8, 2014 at 10:50 PM, migurski notifications@github.com wrote:
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/21ml9a/former_homeless_people_of_reddit_what_unwritten/
— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/codeforamerica/health-project-ideas/issues/18#issuecomment-42635479 .
t: @alanjosephwilli p: 817 713 6264
'Check out the food people give you. I know people who've been given shit sandwiches and stuff with glass in it.'
'My brother, who is mentally ill, was homeless on the streets of DC. He says the other homeless people got him food and forced him to eat it when he looked like he would starve because the voices in his head were telling him to avoid all food. They also made sure he had shelter and generally kept his completely helpless ass alive for almost a years'
'If you have food stamps, share. I once had a homeless man buy me a sandwich, and it was the most humbling experience in my entire life'
'Save every penny. Buy a tent. Put your tent next to a river. Go to the library every single day. Spend as much time as you can applying for jobs. Take the first job you can get. Keep bathing in the river, and working until winter. Do not spend a dime on booze. Once winter comes get an apartment, and keep working. Apply to your local technical college, and get a job in IT. Stop being homeless. Worked for me.'
'Try and get some photo ID, your birth certificate or citizenship certificate and your SIN or SSN. You need these to qualify for transitional housing, medical care, etc. They are surprisingly important when you need them most; I never thought so many people would expect the homeless to have their birth certificate on them.'
Phone + basic documents = black start?
Lots of gold in that thread.
+1 to @migurski.
I also wonder if, for most programs requiring the basic documents, if digital copies (either photos or scans) would suffice.
If so, then the smartphone becomes even more of a potential asset.
Throw on the potential for these things living in cloud services rather than the physical smartphone, and, baby, you got a social justice stew goin'.
Just in case anybody missed it in the AMA thread, here is the top of the funnel for the (or at least one of) the telco-subsidized phone(s) available for those who qualify for food stamps or medicaid:
https://www.safelinkwireless.com/Enrollment/Safelink/en/Public/NewHome.html
Interestingly enough, not available in California.
More background:
The Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) is an independent, not-for-profit corporation designated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as the administrator of the universal service fund (USF). USAC collects contributions from telecommunications carriers and administers support programs designed to help communities across the country secure access to affordable telecommunications services.
http://www.usac.org/about/default.aspx
On Mon, May 12, 2014 at 9:52 AM, Dave Guarino notifications@github.comwrote:
+1 to @migurski https://github.com/migurski.
I also wonder if, for most programs requiring the basic documents, if digital copies (either photos or scans) would suffice.
If so, then the smartphone becomes even more of a potential asset.
Throw on the potential for these things living in cloud services rather than the physical smartphone, and, baby, you got a social justice stew goin'.
— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/codeforamerica/health-project-ideas/issues/18#issuecomment-42857541 .
t: @alanjosephwilli p: 817 713 6264
Seriously...
Here's a bit more context for SF:
On Mon, May 12, 2014 at 9:39 AM, migurski notifications@github.com wrote:
Phone + basic documents = black starthttp://berglondon.com/blog/2012/07/23/week-371/ ?
Lots of gold in that thread.
— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/codeforamerica/health-project-ideas/issues/18#issuecomment-42856018 .
Get a panel of homeless individuals in SF to do an AMA in real life and/or on Reddit...basically some way to bring the StreetSheet (http://streetsheetsf.wordpress.com/) into the digital, scalable world.
cc @cbracy @mattboitan0 @bob741