![]() ![]() Ratliff now finds himself doing tech support for his vendors, helping them navigate the complexities of a modern online presence. Instead of concentrating on the downtown business district, Street Sense vendors now often travel by Metro to places like Silver Spring, Maryland, to find commercial areas with steady foot traffic. “Commuters have always been the best customers compared to tourists,” he said.īut without that steady stream of familiar commuters, Ratliff said his vendors have had to expand their territory. But the most damaging part was the permanent reduction in the number of people working from downtown offices, cutting off Street Sense's main customer base. He cited the COVID-19 pandemic as an extra factor making life difficult for his team.įor starters, it scared people away from using cash for fear that paper money exchanges would be an infection vector. Thomas Ratliff, Street Sense’s director of vendor employment, deals directly with the paper’s approximately 100 sellers. Vendors can now redeem their profits at the Street Sense offices. “We recognized that the times were changing, and we had to change with them.”Įventually he heard about an affiliate paper in Vancouver that had developed a cashless payment app and licensed the technology. “We were losing sales and had to do something about it,” he said. Each vendor purchases the copies from Street Sense for 50 cents and sells them for $2. Around 2013, executive director Brian Camore said he started receiving “anecdotal reports left and right” from vendors saying people wanted to buy a copy but had no cash. The minimum cashless donation is now $5, and donors routinely go as high as $20, Wolfe said.Īt Street Sense, similar advances were necessary to keep up with changing consumer habits. Michelle Wolfe, director of development for the Salvation Army in Washington, said the new system is only in place in 2% of the collection kettles in the greater Washington area, but it has already resulted in increased donations. The Salvation Army has created a system where donors can essentially tap their phones on the kettle and pay directly. While electronic payment apps such as PayPal or Venmo have become ubiquitous, many of these options require items beyond their reach - credit cards, bank accounts, identification documents or fixed mailing addresses.Ĭharities have struggled to adapt. The cashless world can be particularly daunting for the unhoused. “You can tell the ones who really do want to help you, but even they just don't have cash anymore." “Everybody just has cards or their phones now,” said Sylvester Harris, a 54-year-old Washington native who panhandles near Capital One Arena. This shift has been felt keenly in the realm of street-level charitable giving - from individual donations to panhandlers and street musicians to the red Salvation Army donation kettles outside grocery stores. It accelerated as smartphone technology advanced to the point where cash-free payments became the norm for many. ![]() It started with more people using credit cards to pay for things as trivial as a cup of coffee. ![]() One of the larger shifts in Western society over the past two decades has been the decline of cash transactions. Thanks to Social Security and his income from Street Sense and other side gigs, Littlejohn now has his own apartment. “People are like, ‘I don’t leave the house with cash.'”īut just as technological shifts helped create the problem, further advances are now helping charitable groups and advocates for the unhoused reach those most in danger of being left behind in a cashless society.Ī special Street Sense phone app allows people to buy a copy electronically and have the profits go straight to him. “I would be out here for six or seven hours and wouldn't get more than $12 to $15,” said Littlejohn, 62, who was homeless for 13 years. Even well-meaning individuals who want to help are likely to pat their pockets and apologize, he said. Today, he's finding fewer people are walking around with spare change. WASHINGTON (AP) - John Littlejohn remembers the days when lots of people had a couple of dollars to spare to buy a copy of Street Sense, the local paper that covers issues related to the homeless and employs unhoused individuals as its vendors. ![]()
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