RSSGoogle gives phone numbers to San Francisco's homeless
By Michael Hatamoto | Published February 29, 2008, 10:48 AM
Through its Grand Central subsidiary that it acquired last year, Google will provide phone numbers to homeless people in San Francisco by working with the city's shelters.
The project, dubbed Communications and Respect for Everybody (CARE) will join up with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's Project Homeless Connect (HPC) to accomplish this. Along with lifetime access to a permanent phone number, the project offers voicemail as well.
Google and San Francisco will also allow homeless shelters and agencies to create new accounts for their residents. The Mountain View-based company has already handed out more than 4,000 voicemail accounts to homeless people across the city, but the latest announcement marks the first time it will work directly with the homeless shelters.
People in the program are able to check their voicemail using a PIN by calling their assigned number from any phone. The voicemail system works similar to mobile phone service providers in the United States. Both Google and Mayor Newsom's office insist people who dial the phone number of a program participant will be unaware that it is any different than any other voicemail system.
Grand Central allows users to route their phone lines -- home, mobile and business -- to another location, and set the system to ring all, one or two, or none of the phones, depending on who is calling.
As more employers and health clinics require a phone number as a bare minimum for communication purposes, this initiative will hopefully give homeless people a lending hand towards getting back on their feet.
"We're firm believers in the power of technology to improve the daily lives of individuals and communities as a whole, and we recognize that access to phone and voicemail services is one way that GrandCentral can help San Francisco's homeless stay connected with family, friends, social workers, health care providers, and potential employers," Google Senior Product Manager Craig Walker said in a post to the Google Blog.
Assuming the effort is successful during its pilot run in San Francisco, Google plans to work with other cities and agencies to create similar programs across the country.
http://blog.seattletimes...pying_seattle_nonp.html
Score: 0
|Take a look at www.cvm.org They do something similar, but on a national basis.
Score: 0
|great..now telemarketers can bother them instead of us
Score: 0
|"Is it just me or the only way to become homeless in America is by choice? The homeless I see around seem perfectly happy. (Drunk/high, but at least nobody is hungry.)"
Well, I think if you looked at the personal cases of many homeless people- you would see that mental illness plays a disturbingly large role. You can argue about chicken and egg theories about why people are homeless, but until you've been there yourself I would find it very unclassy of you to judge. Most people including most of us posting here have the luxury of living in a first world nation where food is plentiful, but lets not forget that even in paradise, you can be born with bipolar disorder, you can be scarred physically and emotionally in horrible accidents, or even worse, be harmed by someone intentionally. You really need to look deeper into things than to assume that all homeless people are simply lazy drunkards.
While it may seem like "Angel PR" to some people for a company like Google to be doing this, I think it's a valuable case to be made for technology enabling people with OPPORTUNITIES to join the work force, enabling them to save money, then hopefully get their own residence. With a residence comes a REAL telephone if you can afford the bill, a mailbox where you can have important papers sent, and this is an entrance back into "normal life". Encouraging this will enable people to come back into the economy, creating jobs, or at least the potential for them. That's a good thing.
Judging homeless people is pointless and does nothing to improve the scenario or conditions that can exacerbate the negative cycle we often see develop.
Score: 0
|Where they going to get the money to call to listen to their voicemail?
Score: 0
|You will hand them some when you pass by.
Score: 0
|The letter "G" in Google stands for "good" !
Score: 0
|I have to say that I find many of the comments based in ignorance to say the least...
One of the greatest challenges those who are attempting to get back on their feet face is the fact that they lack solid contact information... Having a personal phone number to place on a job application can make a huge difference in an individual's life. The point isn't to force these individuals into some conformist view of what it means to be happy, but instead to give them the means by which they can accomplish their ultimate goal.
As for the comment regarding drug/alcohol use.. a huge percentage of the homeless in the US are mentally ill and untreated.. since the dissolution of the public mental health system an increasing number of individuals who are legitimately sick have found their ways to the streets or the prison system due to a lack of access to mental health services.
Score: 0
|Yes...and it's society's problem, not their family's.
Score: 0
|Haven't you realized that their families (if they have one) can't shoulder all the burden themselves? Think!
Score: 0
|"Do-gooderism" at it's best. These people are miserable - by my standards - so I will make them more like me and that will make them as happy as me.
Score: 0
|Who will they call?
Score: 0
|It reminds me of these articles
HHS announces program to implant RFID tags in homeless
http://politechbot.com/p.../2004-April/000573.html
No Privacy for the Poor, Homeless
http://www.wired.com/pol...rity/news/2004/04/63173
Thanks for your attention :)
educate-yourself.org
Score: 0
|But in good hands, I think this is a good idea and a temporary solution in the strange Amerika we have become.
Score: 0
|Is it just me or the only way to become homeless in America is by choice? The homeless I see around seem perfectly happy. (Drunk/high, but at least nobody is hungry.)
Score: 0
|That's a good point. I wonder what the homeless would be like without drugs? Maybe kind of like the pioneers. They were homeless too, yah?
Score: 0
|