I have a long history of setting a goal -- usually a very conventional goal -- and doing research to try to make that happen and then learning something that makes it clear that stated goal simply doesn't work. With age, I've gotten better at letting go of my initial goal sooner and moving on to figuring out where the research leads.
I live in a small town with a very serious homeless problem. On a per capita basis, it is -- or was at one time -- worse than a lot of the big cities that routinely make the news for such issues.
One of the problems with trying to solve a problem like homelessness is The Shirky Principle: Organizations tend to preserve the problem to which they are supposed to be the solution.
When I was first trying to "get involved" locally, I went to a homeless services center to give them a few flyers and the guy was thrilled to meet someone like-minded who cared about the homeless. He began nattering on about his vision of turning the ENTIRE BLOCK into homeless services.
I was like "My! Look at the time! I am late for a meeting. Bye!"
If you actually care about people, dreaming of growing the homeless services sector is pretty ick. You dream of that not if you care about people but if you enjoy milking destitute, desperate people for an emotional buzz and FEELING like you are doing good works.
If you actually care about people, you want to build housing and create solutions that keep people off the street, not services that demand that homeless people kiss your ass for giving them a free meal while not helping them get their damn lives back.
Ugh.
Some of the early stuff on this site is a dream of doing something with smartphones to help the homeless and I do a bunch of little projects in support of that but I feel like nothing has gelled. I'm clear that's a good idea but I'm not sure where the "pain points" are so to speak. I'm not sure how best to take that idea and use it somehow to make something happen.
I had initially hoped to "get involved" locally and create programs to pass out tech to local homeless and help them use that tech to begin working on solving their problems. That did not pan out.
And that is perhaps for the best. If I had managed to establish a pipeline of donations of used tech to pass out to local homeless, that might have grown the problem.
It might have been an attractive nuisance. It might have resulted in word getting out that "If you are homeless, that small town is the place to go!"
I've been trying to revisit that idea in my mind and I'm feeling stuck. Stupid broken ideas I've had include:
And I hate the term affordable housing. It means something completely different to me from what it means to other people and I don't know how to get past that thorny issue either.
I'm about ready to throw my hands up and say "Wherever you live, find ways to help poor people (whether homeless or not) get access to smartphones, tablets, laptops, wifi and internet."
Meanwhile, I think my time is best spent wondering how to solve the affordable housing crisis. Most (but not all) efforts to "help the homeless" tend to grow the problem, not shrink it.
I'm not some sick asshole looking to squeeze destitute people for a feel-good moment. I would like the US to be filled with boring, middle class people whining about how "There's nothing good on TV."
I'm trying to figure out how we get there from here.
I live in a small town with a very serious homeless problem. On a per capita basis, it is -- or was at one time -- worse than a lot of the big cities that routinely make the news for such issues.
One of the problems with trying to solve a problem like homelessness is The Shirky Principle: Organizations tend to preserve the problem to which they are supposed to be the solution.
When I was first trying to "get involved" locally, I went to a homeless services center to give them a few flyers and the guy was thrilled to meet someone like-minded who cared about the homeless. He began nattering on about his vision of turning the ENTIRE BLOCK into homeless services.
I was like "My! Look at the time! I am late for a meeting. Bye!"
If you actually care about people, dreaming of growing the homeless services sector is pretty ick. You dream of that not if you care about people but if you enjoy milking destitute, desperate people for an emotional buzz and FEELING like you are doing good works.
If you actually care about people, you want to build housing and create solutions that keep people off the street, not services that demand that homeless people kiss your ass for giving them a free meal while not helping them get their damn lives back.
Ugh.
Some of the early stuff on this site is a dream of doing something with smartphones to help the homeless and I do a bunch of little projects in support of that but I feel like nothing has gelled. I'm clear that's a good idea but I'm not sure where the "pain points" are so to speak. I'm not sure how best to take that idea and use it somehow to make something happen.
I had initially hoped to "get involved" locally and create programs to pass out tech to local homeless and help them use that tech to begin working on solving their problems. That did not pan out.
And that is perhaps for the best. If I had managed to establish a pipeline of donations of used tech to pass out to local homeless, that might have grown the problem.
It might have been an attractive nuisance. It might have resulted in word getting out that "If you are homeless, that small town is the place to go!"
I've been trying to revisit that idea in my mind and I'm feeling stuck. Stupid broken ideas I've had include:
- Ask for donations of tech to pass out locally (see above for why that's dumb)
- Make a list of local organizations that give phones to homeless people already (same basic issue)
- Make a list of organizations throughout the region that do that (same basic issue)
And I hate the term affordable housing. It means something completely different to me from what it means to other people and I don't know how to get past that thorny issue either.
I'm about ready to throw my hands up and say "Wherever you live, find ways to help poor people (whether homeless or not) get access to smartphones, tablets, laptops, wifi and internet."
Meanwhile, I think my time is best spent wondering how to solve the affordable housing crisis. Most (but not all) efforts to "help the homeless" tend to grow the problem, not shrink it.
I'm not some sick asshole looking to squeeze destitute people for a feel-good moment. I would like the US to be filled with boring, middle class people whining about how "There's nothing good on TV."
I'm trying to figure out how we get there from here.