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0 pointsreaperducer3y ago0 comments

What if that homeless person was your substance-abusing sibling? A friend from school with mental health issues?

I think we also have to realize that not everyone who is homeless has problems that can explain it away.

It's easy to look at someone who is homeless and tell yourself, "Oh, he's a dope addict. He did this to himself." It's only very rarely true, and you're only making excuses for not helping another human being.

Just last year there were newspaper articles about how a shocking number of perfectly normal public school teachers in California live out of their cars, just because they cannot afford a place to live on what they're paid.

Most people, especially in the SV bubble, would be shocked to learn how many of the baristas, maids, security guards, convenience store clerks, and other people they encounter every single day are homeless, living in their cars, or sleeping on other people's couches through no fault of their own.

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bombcar3y ago

The "quiet homeless" who can hold down a job are also likely to be able to keep track of a phone or other two factor device.

If we can "solve" the problem for the dopest of dope addicts, the problem will also be solved for the homeless barista.

That still doesn't solve the problem for homelessness, of course.

judge20203y ago

> The "quiet homeless" who can hold down a job are also likely to be able to keep track of a phone or other two factor device.

While I agree that there's a lot of generalization here, a lot of the point of supporting the homeless in the first place is that big tech should support everyone, even if they are indeed someone who "can't keep the same cell phone number for more than 4 months at a time" (via the source twitter thread) as if they're a government that must cater to its citizens.

angry_octet3y ago

Just trying to motivate some empathy, "there but for the grace of God go I." You are correct than many homeless people are not carless, or they suffer from housing uncertainty (couch surfing, itinerant sleepers rolling through difficult family situations and severe housing shortages). Probably they can manage 2FA though.

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