Williamsburg is giving city employees’ old phones to people without housing to stay connected with outreach staff.
Though the program just launched in February, Wendy Evans, human services director, said it’s already proven helpful in scheduling appointments for services and letting people know there’s someone looking out for them.
“It’s lonely out there,” Evans said. “For them to receive a text from our staff checking in on them is a lifeline.”
The idea came to Evans when she was upgrading her city-provided phone. She wondered if they could be used in Williamsburg’s street outreach work, the Houseless Outreach Partnership Engagement or HOPE program, which launched last year.
For Mark Barham, chief information officer, it made perfect sense. The outdated phones were typically left in storage or recycled.
“They’re of no value to the city any longer,” he said. “To be able to take these existing phones and get them to folks that need this type of connectivity for no or very minimal cost is, I think, a win-win for everybody.”
For people experiencing homelessness, the phones are a step to self sustainability, a sometimes slow process that takes trust. Many no longer have state-issued identification or even birth certificates, which can prevent them from getting help. The phones also allow human services workers to stay in touch about medical and mental health appointments.
“My staff were going out and literally putting sticky notes on tents saying, ‘Hey, come in tomorrow; I have set up an interview for you, can you come in?’” Evans said. “We felt like there was a better way to communicate.”
Roy Gerardi, human services outreach and crisis counselor, determines who gets phones based on his engagement work. The phone is then theirs.
T-Mobile provides service for at least three months while staff work to get them their own phone plan through other service providers. Some providers offer free or low-cost service for people who qualify for federal benefits, Medicaid or other public assistance.
Human services is considering other ways to use the city surplus to help. Evans has her eyes on donating the old computers that end up stored or recycled, something Williamsburg did several years ago. She believes computers could help people apply for jobs and assistance.
Evans has also raised the possibility of repurposing old vehicles for select families, though it hasn’t caught on yet.
“We’ve had lots of discussions, but I think we utilize our vehicles here in the city basically down to the ground,” she said. “But I’m looking at everything that we do in the city and how we can use that to support the people that we serve.”
