homeless
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Zillow's new search tool helps find housing for those in need
Escaping homelessness is an enormous undertaking, not least because so many landlords and property managers have strict criteria for new tenants. Those that have been homeless are often unable to provide rental histories or sizeable deposits, for example. Now though, property platform Zillow is teaming up with a housing company in Washington to help tackle the problem.
Cruel Google Maps trick marked livestreamer's mansion as a homeless shelter
While most pranks that originate from YouTube are terrible, a recent one targeted at homeless people in Los Angeles was particularly abhorrent and cruel. According to the Los Angeles Daily News, a group of online pranksters connected with popular YouTuber Paul Denino -- better known by his online handle Ice Poseidon -- created a fake homeless shelter on Google Maps that directed people looking for a place to stay to a private mansion he was renting.
Bezos family launches $2 billion philanthropy fund
Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder who happens to be the richest person on the planet, has launched a philanthropic effort with an initial commitment of $2 billion. He and his wife MacKenzie will use the Day One Fund to build a "network of new, non-profit, tier-one preschools in low-income communities" and fund "existing non-profits that help homeless families."
Austin test uses blockchain to improve ID for the homeless
Many people take identification for granted, but it's a serious challenge if you're homeless. If you lose what's on your back, you might lose everything -- and recovering that ID is much harder when you have no fixed address or easy transportation to government offices. Austin might have a technological solution. The Texas city is piloting a system that uses blockchain identifiers to safeguard the IDs and vital records of homeless people in a way that's more accessible for service providers.
New York City plans to track every homeless person in its borders
To assist New York City's efforts to combat homelessness, the mayor's office is planning to deploy a new tool to count every vagrant person within its bounds. In the hands of workers that reach out to the homeless every day, StreetSmart will help them track health, income, demographics and other figures. But unlike the siloed databases currently used by individual departments, the city wants everyone canvassing homeless populations -- civic employee and nonprofit worker alike -- to feed into the tool to create a comprehensive data collection.
San Francisco's 311 app allows residents to report troubled homeless
Mayor Ed Lee unveiled a new feature for the city's 311 public information/assistance app that will allow residents to report homeless people in need of assistance to city officials. The feature is reportedly designed to better help San Francisco's sizable homeless population receive the enormous number of health and well-being services that the city offers. "We will follow up," Lee said during a press conference Tuesday.
In China, faux homeless iPhone owners busted for begging
Here's a tip for the would-be panhandler: don't flash your new iPhone in public if you're looking for contributions. According to a report by China's Xinhua news agency, a foursome of supposed vagrants was busted by local police in the Chongqing Municipality of China when it was discovered that they all owned iPhones, and were decidedly not poor. The group, which are being referred to as "professional beggars," have been presenting themselves as destitute migrant workers in various cities around the country, collecting large sums of cash from generous passersby before traveling to a new area to repeat the charade. The team slipped up when some alert citizens were able to snap photos of them counting cash and taking selfies with an iPhone at a Beijing subway station. All four were iPhone owners - one of the beggars even had an iPhone 6 Plus - when they were confronted, and eventually confessed to police. The fake beggars have even been making life even harder for the actual homeless population, which is now dealing with a distrustful public not comfortable with handing over a donation to an individual who might be faking. [Photo via Gamma Man]
Yesterday's gritty, gutsy style makes us excited for tomorrow
Welcome to the Renaissance.The point-and-click adventure is back and it has nothing to do with Tim Schafer, Double Fine or Kickstarter. This particular revolution is being led by Pendulo Studios' gritty, stylized PC thriller, Yesterday, which marks a departure from the developer's previous title, The Next Big Thing, in a few crucial and exciting ways: Yesterday is not a comedy, though the dialogue retains a brilliant wit. It has nothing to do with the film industry. It involves the psychological analysis of a homeless man who believes his son, who was definitely killed in a tragic subway-tunnel collapse, is still alive.Maybe you have to be just as disturbed as Pendulo's fictional homeless man to really appreciate that last one, but if you are -- boy is it a treat.Pendulo has a solid track record in the point-and-click adventure genre -- they liked it before it was cool, even -- with the Runaway series and The Next Big Thing, but the studio had something to prove when it boldly announced that it was giving up comedy to offer an original, dark thriller with Yesterday. The game retains Pendulo's trademark art style, exaggerated features and colors that appear hand-painted over 3D models, and it is just as appealing as it was in 2003. This time around, however, not just the story is darker, but the palate is as well, with much of what I played taking place in a derelict, abandoned subway channel (I bet you can guess which one).
Free for All: Are MMO transients bad for the industry?
I hate downtown Dallas. When I was a kid, it used to be the place to go. We would drive several hours to see a punk rock show, stare at the cool people we didn't have in Oklahoma, and then drive back. Back then, Dallas was a paradise. Now that I am older and have played in bands for nearly 24 years, I realize Dallas is a pit. I hated playing the clubs there. One of the major issues that the city has run into is what to do about all of the homeless people. I hate to sound like a jerk, but right now you can't go into downtown Dallas without being asked for change a dozen times or asked to "look at this spider bite." (This did happen to me once, and it it was nasty-looking.) Despite my attitude of understanding for people in all sorts of situations, I still wonder what a city is supposed to do with a constant influx of people, people who do not reside permanently in the city yet continue to pass through? You can't tax them. MMO gamers who enjoy multiple games are often talked about as though they are the pitiful homeless. While I can see some parallels, I think that such a judgment is not only insensitive but the opposite of the truth. Let's look at the variables past the cut.
Le controversy over French hobo sim, 'Clodogame'
Having launched a few weeks ago and having amassed over 5,000 users, German-developed Clodogame ("Trampgame", en Anglais) is off to a good start. At least it would be if it weren't inciting outrage among French citizens, who accuse the game of perpetuating a negative public image of the homeless in France, according to a Telegraph report. "The image portrayed is exactly the one against which we've been trying to fight," Red Cross spokesperson Jean-François Riffaud told Le Parisien. From the little of the game we played (er, could translate with limited French-speaking ability), we weren't exactly outraged. It's a free-to-play, text-based kingpin sim set in Paris where players are encouraged to "attack other homeless people," and engage in a variety of thieving and coercion tactics. That does seem like a fairly negative portrayal, but we've become a bit desensitized to the matter after investing hours into games like Manhunt, Condemned and inFamous, where all the homeless people become murderous criminals and targets for your electrical super powers. [Via Game Politics]
Virgin tells people to get naked for charity, beneficiaries not amused
So all of Virgin's many, many brands tend to have a somewhat quirky sense of humor, and typically, that seems to sit just fine with the company's young (and youthful) target demo. It's par for the course then with Strip2Clothe, a campaign it recently launched to get folks to do their best Elizabeth-Berkley-in-Showgirls impression on camera. The idea was simple, if not a little bizarre: post up your best striptease, and for every five views, Virgin would donate one article of clothing to a network of organizations dedicated to helping homeless youth around the country. Problem is, those organizations were never consulted before Virgin launched the campaign, and some of them weren't terribly pleased with the concept, calling it "exploitative" and "distasteful" among other things. Despite the outcry, Strip2Clothe is still online, with a Virgin rep saying "this issue is really important to us, we've had over 12,000 hits for the site so far, and we want to continue to raise awareness for this important issue." And yes, we know you're going to Google it the second you're done reading this, so don't even try to hide it.[Via mocoNews]
Security cameras and a mobile phone help man track down mysterious house guest
Look, we're just as down on crazy Japanese stereotypes as the next guy. We watched Lost in Translation. We're with it. We know it's not all cosplay and weird game shows (but seriously, that human Tetris one? Awesome) and people dressing up as vending machines (pictured). That said, this story isn't doing Japan any favors. A homeless woman was recently arrested in Tokyo after living undetected in a man's closet for a year and sneaking food out of his kitchen. It was the missing food that tipped him off, so he installed some security cameras in his home to transmit images to his phone. Some motion was detected, so he called the police, and soon enough they spotted her in the closet -- where she had planted a mattress. Moral of the story? Move to Japan. Better cellphones and bigger closets. You can't lose. [Via ixplora]
Today's hottest game video: homeless people in line [update 1]
A North Carolina newscast about smart -- or exploitative -- entrepreneurs drew the most views of YouTube's game videos. These gamer-hustlers drove homeless people to local stores and paid them $100 a day to wait for the PS3.These console launches bring out the worst in people, but this situation is more ambiguous. Does everybody win, with homeless people being paid and the organizer scoring an eBay-able PS3? Or are there more ethical questions to consider?Watch the video after the break.[Update 1: Thanks Kozwiz for the spelling fix.]
