The Homeless Guy and other urban legends of homelessness

You've probably heard enough of 'dumpster diving' and other trends or stigmas about homelessness. References to crack whores, pimps, and an individual 'dumping' at a local swill generator have all come out throughout America. But it's rare people hear about the advances in technology being used by people experiencing homelessness.

Kevin Barbieux is both one of those that are more known as well as lesser known. If you've ever done a search about homelessness, you've probably found both his blog and mine. More often than not due to bounces from the internet, both sites usually get a single page visited by the person searching...not getting the full picture or potential of either site.

Kevin's very different from me in that his related experiences come from being a single male on the streets, up, and out...while mine are as a father. But the common thread of the two is the positive attitude and attempt to use existing available technology freely as much as possible to enrich our lives.

While now we can both get our own Linksys router for use at home, we both used existing local network Wifi infrastructure for our publications, personal enjoyment, and networking with others with similiar interests.

Both Kevin and I aren't the exceptions to the rules, we simply connected many 'useless talents' we developed over years that finally culminated into something useable. Rather than looking at overcoming the problem of homelessness individually, I look at both blogs as examples of what's possible for anyone facing diverse problems...not just homelessness.

Part of the problem of Urban Legends is their usually minimized. Each 'legend' has it's own unique story, history, and background. Rather than look at the surface, I encourage you to visit Kevin's blog for a deeper look at what someone faces possibly in your own neighborhood.

Networking: A Service Provider's Best Asset Generator

During the last few months homeless service providers to Jacksonville residents went through harsh facts to face when funding was cut from what was received in prior years. It's caused tension, fat trimmed in some cases, and loss of valuable people in other situations when service providers have hard decisions to make based on fewer dollars to work with.

One thing I'm starting to see more frequently are employees in the service provider field beginning to network online using services such as Linkedin.com and Facebook.com. For some this is a fresh step into unknown territory, for others it's an obvious 'coming out' of internet experience they hadn't a need or felt comfortable with displaying themselves so publicly.

The way I see it, within the next ten years, employees of non profit service providers will be reduced to 90% over time with those employees either out of the 'homeless cycle' field or transitioning in to mental health services. Twenty years from now will show a change of increased mental health services that will have quadrupled in caseloads successfully handled.

Of course there's plenty of people that would 'spin' their own version of the future, just like the ones that spun running people out of Skid Row in Los Angeles made the city safer...thousands of homeless people don't just disappear in to thin air...they just blend in to adjacent neighborhoods better to avoid detection.

Some people just need an exit sign to know when to get off the bus sometimes.

The Song of Spin Doctors revisited

While Hurricane Fay gave spin doctors a new opportunity for new tunes to be dealt to the masses, there were some realities again that didn't make the airwaves to the people.

Nobody wants to hear that the right hand didn't know what the left hand was doing when it comes to the little people the hands were meant to be helping.

The simple fact that an unsheltered family couldn't be told immediately where to go was the concern raised, and once again 80% of locations including Jacksonville Sheriff's Office non emergency number (904) 630-3100 didn't know the downtown Red Cross emergency shelter was operating.

Since that storm nobody wants to hear about it either. But they still check the blog here, so in that spirit here's a tip: subordinates need to be given printed instructions of what's open when the boss goes home at night.

After having done so, it's THEN that Jacksonville's spin doctors can feel more secure and relaxed their dealings with futures trading won't be at risk of bad spin or job loss.