RELEASE: A new app uses tech to empower homeless people

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Washington, D.C. (Oct. 5, 2017) — On Oct. 11, D.C. Councilmember David Grosso will use his smartphone to purchase a newspaper from a homeless vendor, officially launching a new cashless payment app aimed at empowering people experiencing homelessness.

The Street Sense Media App provides a creative tech solution for the organization’s newspaper vendors, who have experienced declining income in recent years as fewer people carry cash. The event will take place at 3:30 p.m. at Freedom Plaza.

The app, which was built by Vancouver-based developer Denim & Steel Interactive, strives to increase circulation of the newspaper and put more money in the pockets of those working their way out of homelessness.

“Our mission to end homelessness depends on our ability to share with the community the stories of those living without permanent housing,” said Street Sense Media Executive Director Brian Carome. “This new cashless payment app seeks to ensure that our newspaper reaches as many people as possible and that our vendors are maximizing their earning potential.”

The hope is that the app, which was originally launched in Vancouver last year, reaches far beyond D.C. Denim & Steel has open-sourced the project in order to make it available to the more than 130 street papers around the world.

“For vendors, cash transactions mean day-to-day certainty, and anything that got in the way of that was cause for concern,” Denim & Steel wrote. “But they also knew that fewer people carrying cash meant lower sales, and gave us our chance to show that this could work.”

For more information, contact Street Sense Media Communications Manager Jeff Gray at 202-347-2006 (x15) or [email protected].

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information about New Signature, a Washington DC tech solutions and consulting firm

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