

Google Gives All SF Homeless Free Voicemail - muriithi
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23377190

======
tlrobinson
Perhaps so they can contact their chefs? <http://valleywag.com/356298/google-
chef-in-homeless-shelter>

But seriously, this is something that _could_ actually help homeless people
get jobs, etc, so good for Google.

Hopefully the numbers are untraceable back to this initiative, so there's no
chance of discrimination against homeless...

~~~
hugh
Have you seen the homeless people in San Francisco? Do you really think that a
lack of voicemail is what's holding them back from getting a job?

You can give 'em a phone, a shower, a shave, a set of clean clothes, and even
some lessons on interview skills, but you can't convince them that working for
a living is better than begging passersby for money.

edit: Of course most of 'em aren't lazy, they're mentally ill. Voicemail
doesn't help much there either.

~~~
mechanical_fish
The ones who aren't mentally ill are hooked on drugs. Do not toy with heroin.
It 0wns you.

A girlfriend of mine once worked as a counselor at a homeless shelter. It was
a somewhat stressful experience, since the drug dealers line up outside the
shelter to tempt the people coming in and out -- it's a good way to get return
customers.

She reported that, actually, one of the big problems with chronically homeless
people is that there's an immense amount of red tape associated with signing
up for housing assistance, signing up for free healthcare, scheduling
interviews with social service agencies, drug rehab, potential employers, etc.
She spent the majority of her time helping people fill out forms, send emails,
and use the phone. That's kind of what social work amounts to.

And, of course, these people have no permanent address, so it's hard to get
agencies and employers to call them back. Hence, voicemail could be a
tremendous help.

You can imagine what it's like to try to fill out IRS forms while you're in
heroin withdrawal and being tempted by dealers every time you go out. It
really puts my caffeine-withdrawal headaches in perspective.

Incidentally, the large majority of homeless people are in and out of
homelessness as fast as possible. Nothing inspires you to action like being in
a homeless shelter... where, among other things, other homeless people will
steal all your stuff. Almost nobody stays homeless by choice.

~~~
kirubakaran
> _Almost_ nobody stays homeless by choice

Supporting link: [http://guide2homelessness.blogspot.com/2006/06/changing-
your...](http://guide2homelessness.blogspot.com/2006/06/changing-your-
life.html)

~~~
mechanical_fish
Well, that depends on your definition of "home". This guy apparently slept in
Kinko's. How he got away with that, I don't know, but if we define "home" as
"a place where you can sleep without being arrested, robbed, attacked, or
frozen", then he had a home.

I should mention that I live in the Northeast. Here, being homeless is a much
bigger deal than in California because of that whole "frozen" factor.

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dkokelley
I like this and I think it is a good idea...

...but how will the homeless people check their messages? How is this better
than a homeless applicant getting a pay-as-you-go phone to get a job?

I understand that the go-phones are not free, but there is no contract or long
term commitment, and that way they will actually have a way to get to their
voice mail.

This reminds me of a story a little while back about a man who voluntarily
limited himself to $25 and the clothes on his back, worked his way to an
apartment, a truck, and a decent amount of savings in less than a year.

Congratulations Google et. all. I hope this project works out well.

~~~
eru
"This reminds me of a story a little while back about a man who voluntarily
limited himself to $25 and the clothes on his back, worked his way to an
apartment, a truck, and a decent amount of savings in less than a year."

[http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2008/02/18/scratch-
beginni...](http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2008/02/18/scratch-beginnings-
an-interview-with-adam-shepard/)

Any other links?

------
brett
Grand Central was doing this long before they got acquired by Google. Before
they offered their product publicly even.

[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-
bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/04/12/...](http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-
bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/04/12/BUGMVI7JKD1.DTL)

------
ken
It's been tried before:

<http://www.qwantz.com/archive/001004.html>

Fortunately "Project CARE" is a much better name. Sorry t-rex.

------
gscott
There is a true lack of places to call your voicemail without a cellular
phone.

~~~
mattmaroon
That's actually quite interesting. Where does one go to use a phone these
days?

