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'Homeless Hotspots' program sparks debate
Google Maps is used to indicate where the "Homeless Hotspots" are located. A controversial new experiment at South by Southwest puts Wi-Fi units in the hands of the homeless. Accused of condescension and exploitation, Homeless Hotspots creators hope the debate will encourage entrepreneurship and visibility.
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Kai Ryssdal: This is a big week down in Austin, Texas. South by Southwest is in full swing. There's music and movies, and technology at South by Southwest Interactive.
And that's where we start today, because we saw a thing this morning that literally made us ask whether it was real news or something from The Onion -- Homeless Hotspots. Homeless people wearing T-shirts labeling them as Homeless Hotspots. Turns out they're selling wireless Internet access. The whole thing is getting a lot of negative feedback; "exploitative" is one of the kinder descriptions.
Saneel Radia works for BBH, the marketing firm behind the experiment. We got him at a homeless shelter in Austin. Saneel, thanks for joining us.
Saneel Radia: Good to be here.
Ryssdal: So let's dig a little bit. You're in Austin for South by Southwest, can't get online, you need a Wi-Fi connection, and you see a homeless person wearing a shirt that says "Homeless Hotspot." What do you do? How does it work?
Radia: The short version is what we're doing is we're trying reinvent the street newspaper model. When we looked into it, we realized that actually they do a lot more than just provide money for the homeless. They give them a social interaction that's actually quite critical to their success. And so we thought that reinventing it would give us the opportunity to bring the homeless out of kind of invisibility as we've seen them treated at big conferences and such.
Ryssdal: Let's remind people what street newspapers are. They are newspapers sold by homeless people, sometimes content-generated by homeless people, and then they get to keep the proceeds.
Radia: That is exactly right. The goal is to go make you introduce yourself. So there is no way to hop on their 4G network without going and speaking to them. That's that social interaction point. These aren't just people that are antennas -- that's somehow been implied in this kind of hardware application that looks bad. They have a service that they offer, which is to get you online. And they generally tell you their story. Once they tell you their story, you get the code, you text in, and then you can join their network and then the money goes directly to them for the access you just got.
Ryssdal: Not to put too fine a point on it, but did you think about how it looks? 'Cause it just looks not great.
Radia: Absolutely. I think that's a very fair question. What's interesting about it, though, is everyone who has dug below the surface has left with a very different perspective. I wish that anyone who knows someone in Austin or is in Austin currently goes and speaks to one of these people. There is no way to engage with one of these people without feeling quite warm-hearted about it. So I hear the point about if you got a 140 character update from Twitter, that looks bad. That said, look at any of the original source information and you realize this is actually a program with an exceptional amount of integrity trying to help people.
Ryssdal: I'm going to try this again, perhaps less delicately. It sounds almost condescending. It sounds, look at these homeless people, we're trying to do this nice thing for them, wouldn't that be nice?
Radia: Yeah, and I apologize to anyone that's offended by that. Many of the street newspapers that we've been speaking to realize it's actually not condescending. What we're doing is we're taking a model that exists already -- street newspapers. It's really that social interaction point, the ability for them to express themselves, to be a bit entrepreneurial. Again, if you really get into the experience, it is the opposite of condescending. It's very empowering, actually.
Ryssdal: When you guys were brainstorming this, did you anticipate the blowback? Did you think about this?
Radia: Certainly we did think about it. It would be naive not to think that this is going to be debated. By putting this model out there, and letting people debate -- this is what worked in their program and this is what didn't work -- we're actually uniquely qualified to say, we can take our licks for whatever we got wrong. What we're motivated by what the people who adopt it get right as a result.
Ryssdal: Saneel Radia, he's the director of innovation at a company called BBH. It's a communications firm in New York City. We got him at a down in Austin, Texas, at South by Southwest. Saneel, thanks a lot.
Radia: Thank you so much, Kai.
Ryssdal: So what do you think? Condescending or a good idea? Let us know. Leave a comment or write to us.
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I live in Austin. In past years, folks at SXSW have had a lot of trouble with WiFi access. Apparently this service helps to obviate that difficulty. Second, our rabbis teach that when we give tzedakah ("charity") to a homeless person or a beggar, we must look the person in the eye and say something kind ("I hope this helps" or "I hope this brings you good luck."). For centuries, we have known that invisibility is bad for folks. Finally, is "Homeless HotSpot" condescending, or is it a credible way for SXSW to provide a humanitarian win-win-win in Rick Perry's backyard? Thank you for your time.
This is a great program. I worked distributing newspapers with my father in an inner city and a common practice was to hire people to stand on corners and sell papers during traffic times. People who did this work often lived so far below the poverty line that you may have considered them homeless, but no body else would do this work. I think a homeless person is most qualified in fact for this sort of work and this is their niche in a market. Convince someone else to do this kind of work, you cant. Homeless people are finally being given an opportunity to make something for themselves and possibly better their situation, and what does greater society do? Try and deny them this opportunity that they, note, agree to.
-Austin
What I find condescending is the assumption that the homeless who are agreeing to be part of this program are not capable of making up their own minds whether they feel exploited. If you'd ever consulted these folks, Kai, before you pontificated about how the program is exploiting them, I'd take your objections more seriously.
This was my take away too. How is it that we assume because someone is homeless that they are less than capable of deciding if someone is offering them an actually opportunity or taking advantage of them. I'm assuming the company interviewed and selected the participants carefully so they could make sure they were able to explain how the program worked. If they were capable of "being a hotspot" they were capable of deciding if this was something they would like to do and that they wanted to participate in.
What I really wonder about is how in the world Marketplace thought this story was properly covered when none of the homeless participants were actually interviewed during it.
Well Kai, if anyone would know about being condescending it would be you. Surely you remember the stream of comments in response to early Marketplace coverage, or lack thereof, of the Occupy Wall Street movement back in October. The word condescending came up frequently in listener comments. Maybe it's time to lose the smug tone.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with this. Anyone that lives in a medium to large city has seen people selling street papers like Streetwise. These programs give the sellers an income, helps them gain useful job experience, gives them community ties and do wonders to help people in bad situations dig themselves out -without- handouts. I know several of the street paper vendors in my city just because I've seen the same guys for years and buy papers from them. They're good people. What they're doing isn't offensive at all, to them or me.
This hotspot program could certainly have a better name, but aside from that it is an excellent concept, is very well executed and doesn't "exploit" people any more than selling magazines at a newsstand is exploitative of the newsstand worker.
What good does it do for one to get gratuitously offended by this? Does it help the homeless or others in need? No. If more people would complain a little less and do a little more, like the people who created Homeless Hotspots, we would all live in a better world.
Awesome Idea. How many people actually KNOW or have spoken to a homeless person in the last year? This is a great way to spread the word that homeless people are PEOPLE - and they might be nicer than your brother. Not everybody that is homeless is ill or addicted. Variety is the spice of life - GO with your plan to let us mix!
And remember Mr. Butch from the Mr. Butch Show.
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