barcoding the homeless

Barcoding the Homeless

14| Do you give money to the homeless people you meet on the street? I do, sometimes. But, mostly I don’t and that’s because I think it will be spent on some sort of vice and not on say… food or shelter. This is why I prefer to donate to a charity. If I give it to a charity, I can make a reasonable assumption that the money I donate will go to the intended purpose of getting someone the help they need. But what if there was a way to give funds directly to homeless people you encounter on the street with the guarantee that it would be spent responsibly? Well, I’ve found a very intriguing technical option that promises to do that very thing. Tune in to find out more. | Check out: 12 DuckDuckGo Search Tips You Should Know to Boost Productivity | And please support my Starbucks habit by dropping something in my virtual tip jar. Thank you.

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About the host:

Over the past decade, Jim Stroud has built an expertise in sourcing and recruiting strategy, public speaking, lead generation, video production, podcasting, online research, competitive intelligence, online community management and training. He has consulted for such companies as Microsoft, Google, MCI, Siemens, Bernard Hodes Group and a host of startup companies. During his tenure with Randstad Sourceright, he alleviated the recruitment headaches of their clients worldwide as their Global Head of Sourcing and Recruiting Strategy. His career highlights can be viewed on his website at www.JimStroud.com.

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PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Hi! I’m Jim Stroud and this is my podcast.

Do you give money to the homeless people you meet on the street? I do, sometimes. But, mostly I don’t and that’s because I think it will be spent on some sort of vice and not on say… food or shelter. This is why I prefer to donate to a charity. If I give it to a charity, I can make a reasonable assumption that the money I donate will go to the intended purpose of getting someone the help they need.

But what if there was a way to give funds directly to homeless people you encounter on the street with the guarantee that it would be spent responsibly? Well, I happen to know of a technology that promises to do that very thing. You know the barcodes on food that you scan in the grocery store? Well, some people are putting barcodes on the homeless and donating to them that way. I’ll tell you more about it after this.

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Okay, barcodes on the homeless. Here are the details, quoted directly from “The Mirror,” a news site based in the UK.

A charity working with homeless people have created wearable barcodes in a bid to help increase donations in a cashfree society.

The new initiative called Greater Change, backed by Oxford University, hands homeless people a QR code similar to those used for online tickets

People who want to give money, but do not have change to hand, can scan the code using their phone and make an online payment to the person.

Further on in the article, it says…

Each account is managed by a case worker who ensures that the money is spent sensibly and will make a positive impact towards the life of the individual.

The agreed targets can go to towards such things as a passport or rental deposit.

Alex McCallion, founder of Greater Change, told the BBC: “The problem we’re trying to solve here is that we live in an increasingly cashless society and, as well as this, when people give they worry about what this money might be spent on.

“So the solution we’ve come up with is a giving mechanism through your smart phone with a restrictive fund“

To give the transaction a personal touch, good Samaritans will also be presented with a profile on the rough sleeper. It will give information on their circumstances, what their job used to be and how they became homeless in the first place.

When I read this, I was more than a little bit dumbfounded. The intention behind the initiative may have been good yet, something did not sit right with me. I looked up more articles discussing “Greater Change” and their initiative, not for more information per se, but to read the comments. (And there were plenty of comments!) They ranged from slightly sympathetic to snarky to down right rude. Here are the ones I thought were the most notable.

  • COMMENT: It’s a trick.  When you pull out your phone to scan the card to give the guy $1, the homeless guy will steal your phone and laugh at your measly one intended dollar.
  • COMMENT: First there was the “Gig” economy. Now there is the “Beg” economy.
  • COMMENT: How exactly, does making it easier to pan-handle successfully move anyone closer to the stated goal of ending homelessness?
  • COMMENT: The problem is, if he is homeless, how is he going to make rental payments all year long?
  • COMMENT: Didn’t we go down this road before? With the numbers and the tattoos and the showers? How long does it have to be between assigning someone a number, and eliminating the undesired numbers? (NOTE: Referring to the holocaust, no doubt)
  • COMMENT: It’s a way to measure income received by beggars for tax purposes.
  • COMMENT: Yup, a new low: Too lazy to even beg (or explain yer circumstances)!

All of these comments struck a chord with me; resonating over and over in my brain. Especially this point: How does enabling homeless pan-handling help said homeless to get off the street? And stay off the street? At best, you are encouraging a cycle of dependency. I think I would rather invest in some sort of entrepreneurial pursuit with a return on investment.

There is a website called Kiva, that let’s you lend as little as $25 to create opportunities for people all over the world. Why not do the same for the homeless here? A portion of what is donated could be for immediate needs like food and shelter, but the lionshare of donations would be towards a startup business of some kind. (Even if it was something so modest as, shining shoes inside a bus station.)

Take it a step further and maybe people could donate business advice, offer affiliate products to sell, give temporary office space or clothing, so that someone could not only start a business in order to support themselves but, eventually, employ others as well. I think if the people over at “Greater Change” further developed their app to do things like that, I would be more supportive of it. But that’s just me. What do you think?

If you love what you heard, hate what you heard or, don’t know what you just heard, I want to know about it. You can reach me at my website – www.JimStroud.com. In addition to finding source material and related information for this podcast episode, you’ll find other goodies that I hope will make you smile. Oh, before I go, please financially support this podcast with a little somethin’-somethin’ in my virtual tip jar. (There’s a link in the podcast description.) Your generosity encourages me to keep this podcast train chugging down the track. Whoot-whoot, whoot-whoot, whoot-whoot…

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