If TripAdvisor allows people to review hotels, why can't homeless people review shelters?
That's one idea behind StreetlivesNYC, a new website where the homeless can find and review social services like shelters, soup kitchens and food banks across New York City. The website, which will launch this summer, allows users to rate and review on an online platform, the first of its kind in the largest city in America.
In a report released in September by Coalition for the Homeless, over 120,000 sleep in the municipal shelter system due to lack of affordable housing, eviction, job loss and domestic violence. Last year has been the highest for the number of homeless people living in New York City since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Most homeless people can get online easily. Many have smartphones, others go to internet cafes, libraries and public internet kiosks, like the LinkNYC stations (but web browsing was recently removed from 400 LinkNYC kiosks because homeless people were using them for hours at a time and some were caught watching porn) . Since 62 percent of homeless teens have smartphones, they've become a lifeline for organizations to help get get them off the streets.
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