growing homeless presence on the web
Anitra Again (anitra@speakeasy.org)
Sun, 18 Jan 1998 19:34:13 -0800 (PST)
This was my first post to alt.society.homeless
Because it was a reply to another post, which was cross-posted to
alt.activism, it also showed up overe there, where Tom saw it and
asked me to forward it here too. And so we spread. :)
I want to ask you all again to s*bscr*b* (word amended to slip past
MajorDumbo the mailing-list software) to alt.society.homeless and
use it, as well as HPN, to increase our voice on the web.
[begin forward]
__________
Before you even get started -- I am a writer. I was a writer before I
was homeless, I was a writer while I was homeless, and I'm still a
writer. I very very seldom write short posts.
This is your last warning.
There is a growing homeless presence on the Web. Along with a growing
presence of people who do not have a lot of fancy gadgetry and are
using the Internet for more people-oriented and community-oriented
pursuits than Doom of the Flashing Graphics or whatever the latest Big
Game is.
In Seattle Washington as well as in many other communities it is
relatively simple for a person without a high-tech pocketbook to still
get access to the Internet. The public libraries have many Internet
access terminals and partner with Seattle Community Network, which
provides free internet accounts, to make these terminals doorways to a
wider community for many, including homeless patrons who often spend
much of their days in the library. The Seattle librarians have been
known to ask the homeless computer patrons for technical assistance!
Many of these people are in active job hunting or vocational training
programs. It takes a long time even when actively hunting for work,
even when actively working, to make it back up off the street and into
housing. It takes almost no time at all to slip off the economic
ladder and land on the streets -- a car accident, a severe illness, a
company folding out from under you or an apartment building torn
down around your ears, any number of circumstances have made people
homeless besides the public stereotyped reasons. It takes a long long
time to climb back up again. In the meantime, sleeping in a homeless
shelter, you usually can't go "home" until 9 PM or later and you must
leave "home" by 6:30 AM or earlier. Even following the standard
advice of "work just as hard at finding work as you would at working"
and spending eight hours a day at training or job hunting, that still
leaves a person living in shelter four to six hours of the day to find
something to do besides going bugnuts and someplace to do it that's
warm. Preferably with a bathroom available.
Human beings do not give up the right to all social relationships, all
intellectual contemplation, all artistic pursuits, or even light
entertainment when they become poor or homeless. But those all become
extremely difficult -- even harder than getting fed, most times.
People who are perfectly willing to discuss Star Trek with you when
you are as clean-cut as Captain Kirk will shy away from conversation
when you are wearing three-day-old clothes because the one washing machine
shared by ten shelters broke down just before your one hour a week
time slot.
The internet is a godsend. You can carry on conversations with people
all over the world and you don't even have to tell them you're
homeless unless you feel like it. You can keep up with the news
without even spending 50 cents on a newspaper. Of course, you can't
pull the electrons over yourself at night, but everything has its
trade-offs.
And there are *lots* of resources available on the Internet, from
shelter and foodbank and medical info to jobs hotlines. You can find
computer training courses and practice them too. You can upgrade your
literacy skills. You can even, if you are willing to try, upgrade
your social skills -- I have seen people become more self-confident,
more alert and more outspoken after spending a few months navigating
the Internet, and I have seen them apply that new confidence to
offline successes as well.
The Internet will not cure homelessness. The Internet will not cure
stupidity or ensure democracy, either. Like every other thing in
human life it can be used foolishly and harmfully.
But it can also be used for a lot of good.