Access to Information
I was walking along today carrying a couple of bags of recyclables. A very obviously homeless guy pushing a shopping cart asked if I wanted more bottles. I said sure, though I couldn't take much more unless he could also give me a bag because my bags were nearly full. He gave me a 10 cent beer can. I crushed it and stuck it in one of my bags.
He said with surprise "Where do you go that takes CRUSHED cans??!" I named the three closest places of the five I use. One was about a 10 or 15 minute walk behind him -- it was, in fact, where I was headed -- and another was about a 10 minute walk in the direction he was going. I repeated myself a time or two and gestured at the one I was going to. He said "I'm not going back down the hill."
But then you could see by his face something clicked. I guess he realized how close he was to the one behind me. He got excited and asked a bunch of questions about where exactly he needed to go and what exactly he needed to do. I talked with him long enough to help him feel comfortable that he understood what he needed to do there and then we parted company.
It reminded me of when I was first on the street and how incredibly frustrating it was to try to accomplish anything when I needed to walk everywhere and didn't know where things were and so on. I think folks with cars and a computer at home and cell phone in their pocket can't really imagine how enormously hard it is to not have access to those things while trying to accomplish basic tasks, like just keep yourself fed.
And I had a table with Internet service and had trouble finding the things I needed. This is a big part of why I started my own website to log information to help me muddle through: It's unbelievably hard to find information you need when you are homeless. Most homeless service centers have paper print outs with long lists of name, address, phone number and maybe a url. It is often organized by type of help they provide (addiction services, food help, etc). Good luck finding those things if you don't know the area like the back of your hand.
Also keep in mind that most folks on the street are not watching TV, listening to a radio, of spending much time on the internet. They may have no phone or the cheapest prepay phone they can get, so they may have very little phone contact with, say, relatives. Probably most folks on the street have strained relationships with relatives. Most folks on the street have no job.
In short, people on the street are largely cut off from most of the ways that most people get most of their information for getting things done in day to day life. Information can be very scarce on the street. Good information can be even scarcer.
So one way to help the homeless is to help them get access to information.
This can be as simple as talking with someone who is homeless. Once, when there was a government shut down and I didn't yet know if I was going to get my alimony because of it, a woman who gave me a few bucks also talked with me long enough to learn that I was worried about that. She was able to tell me her pay (from basically the same source) had shown up that day (the first of the month) and that way I didn't have to worry for the next couple of days whether or not my biggest check was going to be there that month. That was a huge relief.
Here are some additional thoughts (most of them untested ideas) on other ways you might try to help homeless people get better access to information:
He said with surprise "Where do you go that takes CRUSHED cans??!" I named the three closest places of the five I use. One was about a 10 or 15 minute walk behind him -- it was, in fact, where I was headed -- and another was about a 10 minute walk in the direction he was going. I repeated myself a time or two and gestured at the one I was going to. He said "I'm not going back down the hill."
But then you could see by his face something clicked. I guess he realized how close he was to the one behind me. He got excited and asked a bunch of questions about where exactly he needed to go and what exactly he needed to do. I talked with him long enough to help him feel comfortable that he understood what he needed to do there and then we parted company.
It reminded me of when I was first on the street and how incredibly frustrating it was to try to accomplish anything when I needed to walk everywhere and didn't know where things were and so on. I think folks with cars and a computer at home and cell phone in their pocket can't really imagine how enormously hard it is to not have access to those things while trying to accomplish basic tasks, like just keep yourself fed.
And I had a table with Internet service and had trouble finding the things I needed. This is a big part of why I started my own website to log information to help me muddle through: It's unbelievably hard to find information you need when you are homeless. Most homeless service centers have paper print outs with long lists of name, address, phone number and maybe a url. It is often organized by type of help they provide (addiction services, food help, etc). Good luck finding those things if you don't know the area like the back of your hand.
Also keep in mind that most folks on the street are not watching TV, listening to a radio, of spending much time on the internet. They may have no phone or the cheapest prepay phone they can get, so they may have very little phone contact with, say, relatives. Probably most folks on the street have strained relationships with relatives. Most folks on the street have no job.
In short, people on the street are largely cut off from most of the ways that most people get most of their information for getting things done in day to day life. Information can be very scarce on the street. Good information can be even scarcer.
So one way to help the homeless is to help them get access to information.
This can be as simple as talking with someone who is homeless. Once, when there was a government shut down and I didn't yet know if I was going to get my alimony because of it, a woman who gave me a few bucks also talked with me long enough to learn that I was worried about that. She was able to tell me her pay (from basically the same source) had shown up that day (the first of the month) and that way I didn't have to worry for the next couple of days whether or not my biggest check was going to be there that month. That was a huge relief.
Here are some additional thoughts (most of them untested ideas) on other ways you might try to help homeless people get better access to information:
- Hand out laminated cards with a few key pieces of info, like where the food stamp office is and the nearest homeless services center and maybe a few important phone numbers. Paper sucks and gets grimy and illegible and wet and so on. Most of the paper handouts I got had inaccurate info and ... I just have endless criticisms of the crappy paper handouts that are rampant at places that offer services. Anything that can be done to improve on that model will do a world of good for homeless folks.
- Consider developing a Disney-style map for your town that shows some critical things (food stamp office, homeless services center, library, etc) in a highly legible, easily understood fashion. Try to make sure it can be folded up such that it fits conveniently in your typical wallet.
- Give people tablets or smart phones and have an online directory similar to the San Diego Homeless Survival Guide set as the default homepage for the browser. I don't know what would be the best way to approach something like this. I debate how useful it would be to hand your typical street person a shiny high tech gadget. It might be better to give them out as part of a class introducing them to Internet basics and so on. It's a probably pretty half-baked idea that would need a lot of development. I just know my access to the Internet has been a godsend for me while homeless.
- Pass out business cards with little bits of critical info, like a map to the library and a list of questions like "did you know you can get free wifi and charge your phone at the library?" Or a map to the nearest homeless services center and a list of the kinds of things they offer. Or a list of local recycling centers and their hours.
- Start a website for your town similar to the San Diego Homeless Survival Guide. Ideally, then let local services and the like know about it. (I haven't managed to do that for SDHSG. I tried once to tell a librarian. It didn't go anywhere. So, like a lot of things: Easier said than done.)