With the right app, you can get anything you want. So why can’t the unhoused find one to help them get a roof over their heads?
By Ethan Ward, for Capital and Main
Vince Williamz’s fall days were filled with dirty looks from neighbors living in the apartment building overlooking Dorothy J. and Benjamin B. Smith Park. Williamz, who has experienced homelessness for seven years, had recently made the Hollywood park his home. At least a dozen tents lined one end of the park, occupied by people in situations similar to that of Williamz, in an orderly row under the windows and balconies of the Hollywood Sycamore Tower apartments. The glares from neighbors would often lead to visits by police officers shortly thereafter, park dwellers said.
On a warm day in late September, Williamz described his difficulties getting connected to services that could lead him to housing. He wished there was an app that could show him available rooms across the region in real time—technology that would reduce the time he put into trying to find a place.