Program Will Give Homeless Voice-mail

AP via WTOP News ^ | June 4, 2006 | Unk.

[FoxInSocks]

WASHINGTON - A new program coming to the District will provide a free voice-mail service to low-income individuals and the homeless.

Community Voice Mail will make 350 voice-mail boxes available at no cost. Those who want to enroll will be asked to work with a social services case manager.

The manager will make the voice-mail service available as part of a client's overall plan to find a job, or to move out of a shelter or transitional housing.

Each person enrolled in the program will receive a private D.C. phone number connected to a voice-mail box. The number can be used only to check messages.

The executive director of Community Voice Mail says the service began more than a decade ago and serves 46,000 people each year in 37 cities.

[ansel12]

This is the kind of nuts and bolts help a conservative can support.

Not having a phone number to put on a job application is one of the toughest barriers to getting off the streets.

Even laborers have to be reachable for a job call.

[Holicheese]

" Hi this is Sparky. I am out drinking dry gas and vomiting into the gutter. Please leave your name and the name of the bridge you sleep under and I will get back to you."
BEEEEEEEEP

[nmh]

How is THIS a necessity?

What a waste ... .

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

I'm not homeless right now, but leave a message and I'll call you back.

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

[bwteim]

http://www.cvm.org/whatcvm/sites.htm

http://www.cvm.org/images/map_web.gif

[Alex Murphy]

"Hi! This is Sears Window Coverings - would you like a free estimate and demonstration on how our new triple-pane windows can make your Maytag refrigerator box even more cozy this winter?"

[Hildy]

I think this is a good idea.

[CT-Freeper]

Ummmm. if they are homeless, how does v-mail work?

I am assuming that they would go to a pay phone, dial-up the 800 number, enter their mailbox # and pin, and get their messages.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

"Where you at bitch! I need dat money so I can socre some weed! I be down sitting on the street corner."

Man quit trippin' dawg! I was jes 'bout to holla at ya boy til the po-leece came!"

[mkjessup]

"This is XXX-XXX-XXXX, I'm not here right now, on travel until the end of the month, however third party calls MAY be charged to this number in my absence, thank you"

There used to be a voice mail service in Montgomery County Maryland (CompuVoice?) that got hit with that very scam about 20 years ago.

Look for a resurgence.

[bwteim]

I did some Googling.

I don't think it is directly government / taxpayer funded. It operates through donations/donors:

http://www.cvm.org/media/faq.htm

See
http://www.cvm.org/whatcvm/history.htm
for history.

It's been around for at least twelve years.

[petercooper]

They are not homeless. They're sidewalk campers.

[nmh]

TWELVE YEARS!!!

What a waste of money!

Insanity.

[anonymous_user]

"Hello. I'm not home right now..."
(obvious)

[HairOfTheDog]

I'm curious, how would you recommend someone pick themselves up and find a job, if they have no phone number an employer can call them at?

[Froufrou]

They don't have to pay taxes, do they? Do you know that a panhandler can make $30K a year? Taxfree?

When I say something about a homeless person, it's because that's what they've said to me. I often have to walk past them to go to lunch. They've even told me and a friend that they were given one-way tickets from Corpus Christi and Austin.

My remarks are based on what I've been told directly by them.

[nmh]

"I'm curious, how would you recommend someone pick themselves up and find a job, if they have no phone number an employer can call them at?"

This is the kind of ridiculous reply that I'd expect from an idiot.

There are OODLES of places for people to go - shelters, private run homes, churches, goodness ever hear of FRIENDS, FAMILY? Totally foreign to YOU? Good grief - they DO EXIST.
BTW, they can also use these temporary homes as their ADDRESSES. You need an ADDRESS too, not just a phone number.

[Froufrou]

Yes, thank you for your response, that's exactly what I was saying.

It's important that you differentiated between sane and those who are bipolar, of which we have many in my area. I work downtown, across the street from the church that has all the programs for them.

[cowtowney]

"Hello, this is Bob, I'm not home right now....."

ROFL

[Dallas59]

"Hey Miami..Pass the Night Train"