Well, the media have weighed in on the Homeless Hotspots program at SXSWi, so now it's my turn - and I have two problems with this program, after having read a great deal of the both negative and positive press on the initiative and also having substantial experience in the advertising business. I know the work of agency Bartle Bogle Heggarty (BBH) well and they are amongst the most creatively respected agencies in the world, but this effort generated far more negative press than it needed to for two reasons:
#1) Objectifying the Homeless
Why call it 'Homeless Hotspots' unless you're trying to 'guilt' people into participating? Why not 'Human Hotspots' or 'Helpful Hotspots' or anything that doesn't make a homeless person wear a t-shirt that calls attention to their disadvantage? Would we have paraplegics wear shirts with the website address if the alliteration works? Simply branding it differently would have taken the negative aspect away and then made it an actual pleasant surprise when you found out it was really staffed by out of home participants who were making a buck in a way that they might not have otherwise.
#2) Lack of Homeless Creative/Management
On LinkedIn we have a nice LMSW with Social Service provider Front Steps defending the program who certainly doesn't look homeless. She's actually paid, a lot in homeless terms, to work with the homeless. She goes to an office everyday and has a computer and a phone and gets a paycheck every two weeks - even though she works for a 'non-profit' funded by grants and public monies . And then there's BBH. If you've watched Mad Men or know anything about the advertising business you know their business environs can be funky but far from homeless. But what you don't see is any homeless person in the management or creation of the program. As described, it was cooked up by the agency, presented to Front Steps and then administered by Ms. Fowler there. But it's like the days before we had any black quarterbacks. I don't see any homeless people on the front lines, the directing lines, the throwing lines. Why not? We'll they're homeless, right?
What is missed in virtually all the programs to 'help the homeless' is that the problem in America is, that it is impossible to afford housing if you work a minimum wage job and in Texas, a 'Right to Work' (intentional misnomer) state, the minimum wage is just $7.25 . Poor Mr. Clarence, a Homeless Hotspots participant, lost his home to hurricane Katrina but it doesn't seem the government has been able to help him regain his home after a natural disaster aided by ill-maintained national infrastructure took it away. And FEMA? Who knows how they didn't help him. Instead, he's moved to Austin to do this, for a week.
#2) Lack of Homeless Creative/Management
On LinkedIn we have a nice LMSW with Social Service provider Front Steps defending the program who certainly doesn't look homeless. She's actually paid, a lot in homeless terms, to work with the homeless. She goes to an office everyday and has a computer and a phone and gets a paycheck every two weeks - even though she works for a 'non-profit' funded by grants and public monies . And then there's BBH. If you've watched Mad Men or know anything about the advertising business you know their business environs can be funky but far from homeless. But what you don't see is any homeless person in the management or creation of the program. As described, it was cooked up by the agency, presented to Front Steps and then administered by Ms. Fowler there. But it's like the days before we had any black quarterbacks. I don't see any homeless people on the front lines, the directing lines, the throwing lines. Why not? We'll they're homeless, right?
What is missed in virtually all the programs to 'help the homeless' is that the problem in America is, that it is impossible to afford housing if you work a minimum wage job and in Texas, a 'Right to Work' (intentional misnomer) state, the minimum wage is just $7.25 . Poor Mr. Clarence, a Homeless Hotspots participant, lost his home to hurricane Katrina but it doesn't seem the government has been able to help him regain his home after a natural disaster aided by ill-maintained national infrastructure took it away. And FEMA? Who knows how they didn't help him. Instead, he's moved to Austin to do this, for a week.
Instead of programs to 'rehabilitate' or otherwise 'cure' or 'help' the homeless it might be more helpful to involve people affected by the syndrome and ask them what they want and how they think they might get there. I doubt that wearing propeller beanies and selling rides at the fair will be on their list. They might think that having an actual job and being able to afford a home are the most important things to them.
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