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.