Should Homeless Be Allowed Cell Phones?

[princeofvegas 0]

There has been a debate rising in the last few years about homeless and cell phones. I couldnt believe how many people actually felt that if you are homeless you should not have a cell phone. I am on the complete opposite side of this issue and I would like to know where you guys stand.

 

I have done my own research on this issue and have come up with what I think started this "pointless" debate in America. First Lady Michelle Obama, as I have seen on the news many times already, went down the street from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to help serve meals in Miriam’s Kitchen, a neighborhood soup kitchen. Bless her for doing so, for walking her talk. There, a gentleman snapped a cell phone photo of her at work and the uprising began with the first iteration of the photo’s broadcast in the nightly news. It is not clear that the gentleman with the cell phone – a “luxury item” – was even homeless. However, the firestorm whipped across the nation chanting. “A homeless man (or woman; no one is sure now) took a picture of Michelle Obama on a cell phone. How scandalous! How ghastly! The homeless should not be allowed to have cell phones! How can they afford them? Where do they receive their bills if they have no address?”

 

A woman that I actually know, a single mom with two children on public assistance and almost ready to leave that system because she would be accepting a good job, became homeless without warning. She went home to her government subsidized halfway-house and found another family living in it with her possessions. The landlord had rented it to someone else that would pay him more money. This was illegal, but she was unable to fight it, to obtain legal representation, or to have any other help. She was homeless. A relative took the kids, but she was homeless. She went to a shelter and kept her pay-as-you-go cell phone and was able to finish her high school diploma and find a job and start over. Complainers in the audience, would you have taken her cell phone away from her?

 

A cell phone is the only phone many people can afford, especially the homeless but many of the middle class as well. Pay-as-you-go is the alternative to “no phone at all.” Most of the payphones have disappeared from major cities. They were too often used for drug deals. There is a limit on pay-as-you-go phones in that a person can purchase only one per month – this cuts down on terrorist activities that use cell phones as bomb detonators.

 

Parents give their children a cell phone in order to call Mom or Dad for help if they need it. Should not the homeless be permitted to call 911 when they are assaulted? They are assaulted.

 

Some complainers feel that the homeless should use their daylight out-of-the-shelter hours to go to the public libraries and use the Internet to find work. That is no longer altogether possible, because the hours of computer access have been cut by 75%. Free telephone use available to job seekers up until January 2009 in libraries was removed.

 

The homeless, the elderly and other individuals that cannot afford internet home are being herded off somewhere acutely, just as surely as Walt Disnet Studios personnel herded lemmings over a cliff in the late 1950s or early 1960s in order to propitiate the myth that lemmings throw themselves off cliffs every year. They do not.

 

Not all homeless individuals will use their cell phones to place and receive job search related calls, but they should have that option. We in America cannot be a people that says that the homeless do not want to work and then denies them the tools needed to find that employment.

Source

 

AARP puts out a $10/month emergency cell phone plan that the homeless – many of them older people – might afford. T-Mobile offers a $20 pay-as-you-go phone with a free 10 minutes and the homeless purchase minutes as they are able. The homeless often do have SOME money. In fact, I know homeless folks that work TWO MINIMUM WAGE full-time jobs and cannot yet afford an apartment, but are coming close to that as they save their money in dormitory housing offered by area homelessness foundations. The currents of disaster are settling down for them and their storm-tossed capsized rowboats on the sea of life are righting themselves. Perhaps these toiling captains will recover their outboard motors as well.

[anwiii 17]

ofcourse they should be allowed to carry and use cell phones! in fact, i wouldn't mind seeing some of the grant money being spent on vouchers where the major companies can offer free cells and a discounted service plan to the homeless.it would not only allow the homeless to stay in contact with their own family or friends and have a tool to stay sane longer, it's a tool that can help them in emergencies and bettering themselves. sure, finding a place to live and finding a job would still be hard as hell when they are still on foot(most of them), but at least.but if someone feels like giving someone homeless a cellphone, then by all means, i am all for it! people look at the homeless and think they shouldn't have the same rights as anyone else because they don't contribute to society. they have harder lives than we do and although some people do in fact want to remain homeless, the majority don't and just want to survive in this cruel world where there is little hope in a country where we promote the american dream.

[deadmad7 4]

I look at you and ask 'What kind of a question is that?'! Of course they should! Thats like discrimination against other kinds of people! I mean, if you get a call from your boss and you get laid off and in debts (which most people now days) you are now pretty much homeless yourself. Homeless people should have cellphones that could call 911 for free anytime, so they can call when they get attacked or even kidnapped (trust me it happens, people pull into a car and next thing in you know, you have hurt where your kidney used to be, i won't say i doesn't happen, it does, even in US but you just don't hear about it.)

[akira550 0]

oh lol they have freedom and they can use cellphones even if they are homeless, what we know is that they are workingright? even a Sanitary engineer earns a lot of bucks and cellphones are so cheap today as time goes by and bythat's the Good thing for buyers of technology and bad things for us developers, Technologies are upgrading but the priceis downgrading men, that's bad if you are a technology developer or maker, Like my cellphone in the first release I bought it for PHP 10,000 or $200 and then half a year past by, the price turns to half $100 So I learned something,I need to wait for the price to go down to save money

[princeofvegas 0]

I know a lot of you think I am crazy for posing a question like that but you wouldnt believe how many people out there (especially the ones in the higher income brackets) that feel the homeless should not be allowed to have cell phones until they are a functioning member of society. I completely agree with all of you that this should not even be a question. That just goes to show how messed up we are as a society that this questions has even come into existence.. lol.

[webishqiptar 0]

But I don't see the point. A cell phone can be bought at 30$ while a house can cost at 500 000$. So we don't have to make further debates. It is clear for me.

[salamangkero 0]

I sincerely believe the question is rather too broad. It is not a question of whether homeless people should be allowed cellphones (implicitly stating that homeless people may or may not have their phones confiscated from them) I perceive it more like, "Is it right for homeless people to own luxury phones?" If it's some beat-up old Nokia model that can only text or call (no offense to Nokia, I actually prefer your phones), there is no point to the question at all. After all, the poor guy (or gal) most probably NEEDS it. Does your homeless man need a CAMERA phone?However, what if it was a postpaid iPhone? Or Blackberry? Or Android? Is it right that they own a phone with a variety of features they don't need instead of selling it and buying a cheaper model? Oh sure, they bought the phone, it is theirs! However, is this correct behaviour, given that they are aware of their situation? I am no American, but I am from a country that has seen lots of poor people (squatters, we call them; they live in shanties built on land that is not their own) so kindly allow me to pose a few similar questions:Is it right for a poor man to pay for hair coloring (bleach, highlights, what-have-yous) when his family could only eat rice and salt everyday?Is it allowable for a beggar to buy cigarettes even as he himself is begging for food?Should a woman buy a new cellphone model if her daughter is already wearing tattered rags from day to day?By the virtue of trading, anything anyone buys, without cheating or resorting to any trickery, is rightfully his. I will not dispute that one's property should not be confiscated if it harms no one. Do not mistake this, however, for approval of such reckless actions. For one in dire straits, it is only prudent to attempt to recover by ridding one's self of luxuries and sticking to one's needs. To do so communicates a genuine desire to save one's self and should not a nation attempt to save those worth saving? No, a nation should try to save as much of its populace as it can, whether they help themselves or not. Yet the question still lingers, are you willing to save those who would not help themselves?(Remember, this is, for me, about luxury phones. I do acknowledge the (almost vital) need for a basic cellphone)

[anwiii 17]

one thing about what makes any country great is it's people. i don't really give that much to the homeless. they are everywhere and feel it's unfair to give to one and not give to all. yes, i think the homeless just like everyone else should be able to take care of themselves. in the united states here, they do just that. even the homeless. most likely though, a homeless guy isn't gonna walk in to a store and buy a cell phone. normally it will be given to him. but then you bring up the question about giving to the homeless and then them buying cigarettes or even booze. see, i have no problem with this in general as you can't possibly know what it's like on the streets until you have been there yourself. they are quite capable of buying cigarettes AND feeding themselves. yes, if they didn't buy the cigarettes or booze or drugs, then people wouldn't have to give as much to help them survive on the streets or they wouldn't have to work as hard to find the money for food. but isn't that the case with the non homeless? isn't it just a choice that they make just like everyone else? it's give and take. why should the homeless be limited to just the necessities to survive? should they not have anything of value? should they not enjoy a ciggarette or a drink to warm them up on cold nights?

so as you had a problem with the original question, i have a problem with yours. it intimates that the homeless deserve nothing unless they are willing to better themselves. and to who's idealistic outlook should the homeless be compared to? yes, this is about survival on the streets, but it's also more than that. it's the psychology behind it all too. how did they originally become homeless? there is probably no easy answer for it. i mean, everyone's situation would be different. take for example a 16 year old runaway. why did he or she run away and rather live on the streets than under a warm roof with food provided by their parents? maybe they were beaten or raped and didn't know what else to do. maybe a 30 year old man lost his job and felt like a failure when he couldn't provide for his family and couldn't get another job. what happens to these people when they are on the streets? normally, people look down on the homeless and the homeless KNOW it. how does that affect them? under certain circumstances, i would be drinking too! i would also be afraid to enter back in to the real world because nothing is worse than trying to pick yourself up and fail....and sometimes realize that people aren't really there for you when you need them the most.

so anyone giving to the homeless should give unconditionally. it's the act of giving that is important. not how one will use the act of giving. so if i were to give a homeless guy $10 and he goes out and buys cigarettes and booze, and not food, that's ok by me because this guy needs to know that giving is giving and there are people who WILL help him even if he decides to use the money for something that it wasn't intended for. we have to accept the homeless. they are EVERYWHERE. maybe they make bad choices. who doesn't. i've seen people with a lot of money make worse choices than the general homeless population....so where are the stimulations on THEM? why target the homeless? because they are lower class than you? because if you see people that way, then maybe you need to keep yourself in check by not judging a group of people who have different backgrounds and different circumstances.

sure, we want the best for everyone, but the world isn't a utopia and there is no BEST for everyone. we make due with what we have and we try to be happy in our environments. the homeless have it tougher than anyone else if we are talking materialistically. if you get to know them though(which most people don't even take the time), you'll know they are more than just people who have nothing materialistically. and just because you see them as having nothing or not helping society, it doesn't make it true. the homeless sometimes live in communities where they will try and help each other out. they are still human beings, they still care about people, and they DO do some good and not just sitting around don't nothing all day. they even help the environment by collecting cans and recycling. they probably do more recycling than any average household. so yes, don't judge a book by it's cover because you will just look like a fool when the truth hits you in the face. in my opinion, i would rather see the homeless pan handling and getting money for free rather than decide they can make more by robbing people and breaking in to homes and parked cars. so at least the majority of them are still fairly honest people in that respect and wont lower themselves to hurt others.

so what do they deserve? everything anyone else deserves and when christmas time comes, and you are getting things free because the act of giving is most important(not what you give or how it is used), think about all those homeless who don't even deserve a cell phone....or some cigarettes....or a drink or that drug addict homeless guy that will die on the streets from withdrawl if he doesn't get his fix and where we don't have the resources to get most of them the help they REALLY need....mentally and phisically. think about those guys at christmas when you are opening your presents and getting things you don't need either.

anyway, that is my speech. i guess the first couple paragraphs was directed to the person i quoted, but in general, it wasn't so please don't take offence as i know you probably didn't state all your views on this issue. but i just want to open peoples eyes to see a little clearer picture. we ALL need to do our part to make this world a better place to live and we don't start doing that by limiting giving to the homeless because of where our limited thinking takes us in our own little idealistic world when reality is just so much different in some forms and in any given situation.

so personally, i would LOVE to see the homeless walking around with blackberry phones. wouldn't that be neat to see? i would LOVE to see that! not only would they have more resources to help themselves, they can feel more good about themselves buy actually having something of value. i personally would get a kick out of seeing that and be SO happy that they have their phones!

Yet the question still lingers, are you willing to save those who would not help themselves?

Yet the question still lingers, are you willing to save those who would not help themselves?