Technology
What does homelessness mean in our increasingly connected, so-called digital age? We’re on a journey to find out.Recent research shows that 91% of the homeless have a working mobile phone and 46% have a smartphone.How aware are we about how the homeless use technology in their everyday lives? How could it make things easier? How might it enhance our understanding of different forms of homelessness and challenge misconceptions? And how is it changing the way homeless charities and organisations work?In the second of our podcast series, we talk to Gaia Marcus, from Centrepoint and Gerard Lemos, partner in social research firm Lemos & Crane about how we can use tech to understand and tackle homelessness more powerfully.Gaia is overall Project Manager for the Google Impact Challenge-funded Youth Homelessness Databank - the UK's first open data resource which aims to end youth homelessness through gathering data and lived experience.Gerard leads the research team at Lemos&Crane and is the author of several books and reports about social policy and supporting vulnerable people including the recent report Trends and Friends: access, use and benefits of digital technology for homeless and ex-homeless people