Laptops for the Homeless

Circling back to this meme about how technology can improve the lives of the poor, there's an article from WIRED Magazine about laptops for the homeless, brought to my attention by Bill McIver on the Digital Divide Network listserv. Here's a brief bit from that article:

"Many of those now living without a permanent roof over their heads have cell phones in their pockets or laptop computers at their hips. While people living in shelters and alleys have found it difficult to cross social divides, the digital divide seems to disappear on the streets. Nearly all homeless people have e-mail addresses, according to Michael Stoops, director of the National Coalition for the Homeless. 'More have e-mail than have post office boxes,' Stoops said. 'The internet has been a big boon to the homeless.'

Helping the homeless get e-mail addresses has been a priority for years at shelters across the country. And in an age when most every public library in the nation offers internet access, the net has proven a perfect communication tool for those without a firm real-world address."


Clearly, there are some implications here for public health and public health practitioners. It might be possible to get health information to homeless people via email, and certainly those who want to work with this population need to know how to help people set up email accounts.

And, even more encouraging is this story:

"Terri Hellerich's connection to the information superhighway is all that made life livable on the streets. 'It kept me sane and provided my income,' she said. Hellerich found herself homeless after a landlord in West Sacramento kicked her out and kept her belongings to make up for a debt. She didn't have a change of clothes, but she did have an old cell phone that she could use to stay online and check her inbox.

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."

The article goes on to mention the blogs of several other homeless folks, including Kevin Barbieux, a woman in the UK known as Wandering Scribe, Willie York, and another blog written by a young woman who wrote about being homeless and now has housing.