Homeless Running a Business

If you visit Seattle downtown, you would see quite a few homeless folks trolling through the streets. Some would just ask "Sir, do you have 50c? Could you help me out?". Some would actually do something to earn the money, like selling a newspaper called "Real Change" for $1. I came across one such person yesterday.

She told me that they actually have to pay 35c to get a copy of the newspaper. I am not sure if it's true as I can't verify it. Let's assume it's true for the sake of this post. Basically, the Real Change organization is trying to help the homeless people become self-sustained by encouraging them buying and selling products. That's good intention but I think the product, newspaper, is a bad one. Think about it, how many people read physical newspapers today? How many newspapers have closed down due to the competition on the web? News stands are having hard time selling newspapers and I think the homeless people will have a even harder time.

I don't think people would spend money on a crappy product (even with the intention to help the homeless); I think they would rather donate the money to charity (at least I would). So if charities want to help these homeless people become more self-sustained, they seriously need to offer a product that people actually want and would buy. What could that product be? I don't know but I don't think it's newspaper. I actually wonder if they have metrics to track how they are done.