One of the problems with services aimed at helping the homeless is that such services tend to preserve the problem. This is known as The Shirky Principle.
It was one of the reasons I discontinued the San Diego Homeless Survival Guide: I worried that the kind of website I was making was the kind that would entrench homelessness, not help solve it.
Ever since I wrote Lessons Learned from Writing the San Diego Homeless Survival Guide, I have been intending to do a follow-up piece about what kind of websites I think would be a good idea if you wish to serve this population without invoking the Shirky Principle. What sorts of websites help the homeless without helping keep them stuck there?
I'm just going to list out some ideas to start and then talk a little about why afterwards and what you can do to keep it homeless-friendly.
If you want to make a bathroom finder and you want to make it homeless friendly, you could make sure to include information on public bathrooms that are completely free. In other words, a lot of "public" bathrooms are at malls or department stores and there is an implicit expectation that you are shopping.
Homeless people frequently get thrown out of stores, even when they are shopping, simply for being obviously homeless. So if you can identify which bathrooms are genuinely free and open to the public and not part of a commercial establishment, that's useful information for homeless individuals.
Another detail that is helpful is knowing which bathrooms are single bathrooms with a lockable door instead of a set of stalls. This allows a degree of privacy for doing things like brushing your teeth or changing your clothes without someone else acting like you are doing something wrong.
This is important if you are homeless in part because if a middle class person is traveling and brushes their teeth in the public bathroom, no one cares. But when the homeless person does it, people have a fit and say you are mis-using the bathroom and it's not intended for that and get out and don't come back.
Homeless people who have cars typically sleep in their vehicle, but those without cars often buy a tent. Knowing where you can legally camp for free can be extremely helpful when you are homeless.
Campsite finders tend to not do a good job of covering tent camping. A lot of them are aimed at RVers, not tent campers.
Middle class "free food" is helpful because soup kitchens and the like tend to be sources of low quality food, have limited hours, etc. Information about freebies at normal, middle class establishments can help homeless people survive while holding the quality standard closer to the middle class level.
This can be valuable for problem solving and getting their lives back. Going to soup kitchens can help entrench the problem, in part because so many people there tend to be sick and your stuff may get stolen and so forth. I wasn't homeless very long before I began actively trying to avoid free meal sites as much as possible, but free items and discounts at "normal" places were very helpful in stretching my limited budget.
The LGBTQ population is at very high risk of homelessness. If you are doing anything in this space, keep in mind that some of your clientele are probably homeless and/or barely scraping by. Wherever possible, try to find them free and cheap options that are effective at meeting their needs and educate yourself about homelessness so that you can be sensitive to the needs of your clients.
This also applies to any resources for people who are handicapped or dealing with mental health issues. Those are also risk factors for homelessness.
The same things that help digital nomads, such as online portable income and virtual mail addresses, can help homeless individuals. I began earning money online while homeless and it helped me eventually get back into housing. For a time, I had a virtual mailbox.
I try hard these days to provide resources online that are helpful to those at risk of homelessness and those currently homeless, but my goal is not really to help the homeless. My actual goal is to reduce the incidence of homelessness, so I think very carefully about what kinds of resources can be helpful to those who are currently homeless without helping keep them stuck there and without being something that requires you to be homeless first to get help.
Programs that require you to be homeless to get help are especially bad. If you can't get the help you need without being homeless, this is a recipe for cycling into and out of homelessness and never achieving stability.
It was one of the reasons I discontinued the San Diego Homeless Survival Guide: I worried that the kind of website I was making was the kind that would entrench homelessness, not help solve it.
Ever since I wrote Lessons Learned from Writing the San Diego Homeless Survival Guide, I have been intending to do a follow-up piece about what kind of websites I think would be a good idea if you wish to serve this population without invoking the Shirky Principle. What sorts of websites help the homeless without helping keep them stuck there?
I'm just going to list out some ideas to start and then talk a little about why afterwards and what you can do to keep it homeless-friendly.
- Bathroom finders.
- Campsite finders and camping/survival sites generally.
- Middle class "free food" sites.
- LGBTQ resources.
- Handicapped resources.
- Mental health resources.
- Digital nomad sites.
If you want to make a bathroom finder and you want to make it homeless friendly, you could make sure to include information on public bathrooms that are completely free. In other words, a lot of "public" bathrooms are at malls or department stores and there is an implicit expectation that you are shopping.
Homeless people frequently get thrown out of stores, even when they are shopping, simply for being obviously homeless. So if you can identify which bathrooms are genuinely free and open to the public and not part of a commercial establishment, that's useful information for homeless individuals.
Another detail that is helpful is knowing which bathrooms are single bathrooms with a lockable door instead of a set of stalls. This allows a degree of privacy for doing things like brushing your teeth or changing your clothes without someone else acting like you are doing something wrong.
This is important if you are homeless in part because if a middle class person is traveling and brushes their teeth in the public bathroom, no one cares. But when the homeless person does it, people have a fit and say you are mis-using the bathroom and it's not intended for that and get out and don't come back.
Homeless people who have cars typically sleep in their vehicle, but those without cars often buy a tent. Knowing where you can legally camp for free can be extremely helpful when you are homeless.
Campsite finders tend to not do a good job of covering tent camping. A lot of them are aimed at RVers, not tent campers.
Middle class "free food" is helpful because soup kitchens and the like tend to be sources of low quality food, have limited hours, etc. Information about freebies at normal, middle class establishments can help homeless people survive while holding the quality standard closer to the middle class level.
This can be valuable for problem solving and getting their lives back. Going to soup kitchens can help entrench the problem, in part because so many people there tend to be sick and your stuff may get stolen and so forth. I wasn't homeless very long before I began actively trying to avoid free meal sites as much as possible, but free items and discounts at "normal" places were very helpful in stretching my limited budget.
The LGBTQ population is at very high risk of homelessness. If you are doing anything in this space, keep in mind that some of your clientele are probably homeless and/or barely scraping by. Wherever possible, try to find them free and cheap options that are effective at meeting their needs and educate yourself about homelessness so that you can be sensitive to the needs of your clients.
This also applies to any resources for people who are handicapped or dealing with mental health issues. Those are also risk factors for homelessness.
The same things that help digital nomads, such as online portable income and virtual mail addresses, can help homeless individuals. I began earning money online while homeless and it helped me eventually get back into housing. For a time, I had a virtual mailbox.
I try hard these days to provide resources online that are helpful to those at risk of homelessness and those currently homeless, but my goal is not really to help the homeless. My actual goal is to reduce the incidence of homelessness, so I think very carefully about what kinds of resources can be helpful to those who are currently homeless without helping keep them stuck there and without being something that requires you to be homeless first to get help.
Programs that require you to be homeless to get help are especially bad. If you can't get the help you need without being homeless, this is a recipe for cycling into and out of homelessness and never achieving stability.