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What do you give the man who has nothing?

Looking to aid the homeless? Voice mail is one good way to start.

Here is some explanation:

"It just makes people feel a lot better about themselves," said Larry Sykes, Community Voice Mail director at The Stewpot, which hopes to offer more than 2,500 voice mail lines in Dallas within three years. "Unless they tell somebody they're eating at The Stewpot or sleeping under a bridge, nobody knows it."

In Cornelison's case, Goodwill Industries was aware of his plight when it used the voice mail system to contact him and offer him a job at one of its warehouses at $5.68 an hour.

For now, the 40-year-old Dallas man still lives on the street. "But once I start getting paydays, I'll be able to not do that anymore," said Cornelison, who hopes to move into a motel, if not a more permanent home.


Posted by Tyler Cowen on September 10, 2004 at 10:17 AM in Current Affairs | Permalink

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