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. Give us a call today.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. If you need a new or replacement key for your lock, we are your local key duplication experts. We are proud of the reputation for quality, reliability and reasonable prices that we have built up over the years. We offer a quick and reliable service and have been serving the local residential and business community. They will be made to at least the same quality level as your original keys. When these all-to-common things happen you don’t have to let it affect your business or home routine as we can get you duplicate keys that will work properly. We also understand the equally frustrating feeling of losing your keys. We understand the frustration of breaking a key and being unable to open or secure your lock. Mul-T-Lock Keys ,medeco Keys ,Sargent Keys, Yale Keys, kwikset Keys,master Keys,arrow Keys, Baldwin Keys, marks Keys, garrison Keys and many more.Experience with all major key and lock brands including:. ![]()
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