Homeless People Don’t Need an App, They Need a Fucking House
1–10 of 23 posts
Re: Homeless People Don’t Need an App, They Need a Fucking House
#2> Users can then read the profile of the beacon-wearer, and donate money if they’re so moved. Donations can be redeemed at select stores and restaurants. They cannot be used to buy alcohol. The beacon-wearer must check in monthly at a participating nonprofit, or else their beacon is disabled.
Soon there will be multiple agencies that helps homeless individuals build the most marketable profile and increase "Donation conversions".
I don't know much about homelessness and I don't have a solution to the problem but this whole process of only being able to redeem donations at selected locations feels inhuman. We can't trust the homeless so we'll donate this amount but we say what you can use it for because we know better.
Again, I admit my naivety but I can't help feeling there's something fundamentally wrong with this approach.
Re: Homeless People Don’t Need an App, They Need a Fucking House
#3> The founder of WeCount, a tech entrepreneur who has sold multiple companies to Google, raves to the press about the “huge emotional ROI” (return on investment) donors get from participating.
It sounds like these apps aren't designed to help the homeless in the first place. They're designed to help people with spare change feel a little better about themselves.
This seems even worse than trying to make a difference to the housing situation and failing. Along with the idea of requiring homeless people to wear a beacon around their neck to pick up scraps from the wealthy, it sounds dehumanizing. Almost like the romans and their coliseum?
I'd love to hear the perspective of any people who've used these apps from the receiving end though. Maybe it's not as bad as it sounds.
Re: Homeless People Don’t Need an App, They Need a Fucking House
#4> Users can then read the profile of the beacon-wearer, and donate money if they’re so moved. Donations can be redeemed at select stores and restaurants. They cannot be used to buy alcohol. The beacon-wearer must check in monthly at a participating nonprofit, or else their beacon is disabled. Soon there will be multiple agencies that helps homeless individuals build the most marketable profile and increase "Donation…
There's some positive results coming out of Helsinki:
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/jun/03/its-a-miracle...
Worth exploring.
Re: Homeless People Don’t Need an App, They Need a Fucking House
#5I 100% (100,000%!) agree that we need to resolve our housing supply issues. It's a major contributing factor to homelessness.
The rest, I mostly disagree.
The primary reason for the limitations on after donation use is because that's how donations generally work. It isn't a homeless thing.
People will not give you money or other assets if you don't first tell them what will be done with it. If you don't give them some control, most people won't give you anything at all.
A lot of homeless people have complex issues. Yes, helping them really is more complicated than "just give them a house!"
Re: Homeless People Don’t Need an App, They Need a Fucking House
#6They don't need a house. They have shelters and its known many if not most choose not to use them. So its their own fault.
Its well known in Los Angeles where we keep burning taxpayer money and the government officials keep making their friends rich by building more shelters that aren't used. So its just a waste until we make it a crime for them to sleep on the street and loiter and harass people if there are shelters available. They just cause trouble and commit crimes, that's what they do best.
Re: Homeless People Don’t Need an App, They Need a Fucking House
#7Good thing it's illegal to trade or sell the things they buy and use the money to buy alcohol. Oh wait... it isn't and you're all dumb.
Re: Homeless People Don’t Need an App, They Need a Fucking House
#8The homeless problem is really a drug problem. How many millions of Latin Americans have moved here in the past few years? None of them are living in tents on the curb or shooting heroin in a BART station. The down and out people who are homeless between jobs overwhelming get relocated in homes or shelters and get support. The people you see living in tents on the street are hardcore drug addicts and mentally ill who refuse social services. Prop 47 legalized theft up to $1000 and Prop 57 made heroin and meth basically a parking ticket. So now you have armies of drug addicts roaming around stealing stuff and killing themselves and they’ll never be forced to get treatment. We pat ourselves on the back and say that’s for the best. What a joke. Bring back conservatorship laws and mental institutions and forced rehab programs.
Re: Homeless People Don’t Need an App, They Need a Fucking House
#9Homeless people need a LOT more than a house. Every single one has their own story and circumstances. From what I have read about people who have made their way out of homelessness at my local Rescue Mission, it was a multistep, and long, road to get back to "normal". One man spent years at the Mission. Just giving them a house would not have saved them.
Re: Homeless People Don’t Need an App, They Need a Fucking House
#10The homeless problem is really a drug problem. How many millions of Latin Americans have moved here in the past few years? None of them are living in tents on the curb or shooting heroin in a BART station. The down and out people who are homeless between jobs overwhelming get relocated in homes or shelters and get support. The people you see living in tents on the street are hardcore drug addicts and mentally ill who…
The homeless problem is really a drug problem.
Tell that to the thousands of working full-time school teachers, maids, baristas, factory workers, and yes even coders who have to live in their cars or worse.
Homelessness isn't one single problem. Saying it's a drug thing is just a way for people to put their noses in the air and pretend that homeless people brought homelessness on themselves.