Re: new newsgroup - alt.society.homeless (fwd)
Virginia Sellner (wych@tcd.net)
Tue, 20 Jan 1998 17:22:43 -0800
Anitra is right and we have seen the same thing People should not critize
homeless people who have these things for their own, or on loan, nor should
they critize them for having phone cards -- this year at Christmas a very
generous person in Cheyenne gave prepaid phone cards to a large number of
homeless people -- I have also know some homeless people who liked to
dumpster dive and found working computers int he dumpster. We have an
agency here in this town that gives donated items to those in need and this
frequently includes computers. Having had a past bad experience with cell
phones myself -- too big a bill-- I wouldn't get one, but if a person is
able to keep the calls under control, and has gotten one of those deals with
lots of free time, then more power to them. Virginia
At 04:45 PM 1/20/98 -0800, Anitra Again wrote:
>These were my comments on the phenomena of homeless using cellphones:
>
>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: Mon, 19 Jan 1998 19:59:11 -0800 (PST)
>From: Anitra Again <anitra@speakeasy.org>
>To: bobhahn@whoever.com
>Cc: HOMELESS DISCUSSION LIST <homeless@csf.colorado.edu>
>Subject: Re: new newsgroup - alt.society.homeless
>
>On Sat, 17 Jan 1998 bobhahn@whoever.com wrote in response to a
>newsgroup posting about a homeless person and a laptop computer:
>
>> That reminded me: I am witnessing a sharp rise in the use of cell
>> phones by homeless and near-homeless people, especially those
>> on SSI. More than once I have looked around in our day center
>> for mentally ill homeless people, and seen two or three people
>> talking on cell phones. We have one fellow who comes in and
>> uses our outlets to recharge his phone.
>>
>> This is not something I would have expected to see develop.
>> Is anybody else seeing this?
>
>As satirical as it sounds at first -- homeless people using cell
>phones and laptops -- improvements in technology, with corresponding
>drops in price, combined with increasing numbers of
>formerly-middleclass who are now homeless, is bringing about a rise in
>use of "portable communications" like laptops and cellphones among the
>homeless -- and I think you will see even more of it in the future.
>
>It really isn't unfeasible anymore for someone who doesn't have enough
>income to lay out first-and-last month's rent for an apartment, and
>who can't get into subsidized housing, to still have enough money to
>afford a laptop or a cellphone. I was recently offered an
>older-model, used laptop for less than $100 -- although I did not have
>$100, I have known working men and women still in shelters, saving up
>for housing, who might very well have decided it was worth delaying
>the housing one more week to have access to a wider world in the
>meantime. Cellphones are a *lot* less expensive than that, and even
>more useful -- especially if you are working on-demand, expected to be
>available on notice, and you don't want the boss to know you are
>homeless. Cellphones have a tailor-made marketing niche in the
>homeless population. And homeless does not necessarily mean "having
>no money whatsoever". It means "not having enough available funds to
>pay the cost of available housing".
>
>People have also gone homeless while still possessed of a lot of
>appliances, furniture, and other goods. These usually evaporate
>rapidly, sold, stolen, or lost for lack of a storage payment. But a
>cellphone is small enough to keep on your person, and therefore keep.
>
>While comedians will have a lot of fun with the image of homeless
>people using cellphones and laptops, for awhile, eventually our
>perceptions of "normal" will adjust, and it won't be any more unusual
>to see a homeless person with a cellphone than a homeless person with
>a car or van -- which would have been a real reality-warp fifty years
>ago.
>
>___________________
>WRITE ON! -- Anitra
>[end forward]
>
>I have seen some very inexpensive cellphones for sale, and prepaid
>cellular phone cards also. I don't think it's as outlandishly an
>expensive technology as it used to be even a few years ago.
>
>-- Anitra
>
>
______________________________________________
Speak only words of truth.
Speak only of the good qualities of others.
Be a confidant and carry no tales.
Dhyani Ywahoo,"Voices of our Ancestors, Cherokee teachings from the Wisdom
Fire".