That flaw is the rules state that applicants must have a valid United States mailing address in order to qualify.
For example, the largest provider of free government cell phones says you must have “a valid United States Postal Address. In order for us to ship you your FREE phone you must live at a residence that can receive mail from the US Post Office. Sorry, but P.O. Boxes cannot be accepted.”
This was a major oversight by the people who wrote the program. They clearly didn’t realize that many of the Americans who need the program most are homeless. And according to the rules, being homeless also condemns you to being phoneless.
If the Federal Communications Commission read some of the heartbreaking emails we get every day, they would quickly reconsider this rule. Here are a few of them to give you just a flavor of the many plaintive pleas:
On reader said, “I am currently in Transitional Housing and was told the address did not qualify as a residence.”
Another reader told us, “Safe Link could not issue a phone and if it was found out that the address used belonged to full extent of the law!”
A third one noted, “There are people, living in shelters and transitional housing. Are we inhuman because we’ve fallen on hard times?”
Another woman said, “My sister is ill and has heart problems and I’m trying to get her a free cell phone. But due to (the fact that her) roommate has a free phone she can’t get one. There is no way for us to keep communication open. Can she use another family member’s address?”
And finally, “My older brother is in a nursing home. Would he be able to get one of the government phones?”
We hope the FCC commissioners will read these comments and act to correct this major shortcoming in the Lifeline Assistance program.
Think about the poor, the needy, the disabled, and the elderly who fall between the cracks and can’t get a free phone. Think about all the Americans who are living in cars, living in homeless shelters, and living on the streets. Think about how much they need cell phones despite the fact that they don’t have permanent mailing addresses.
OK, FCC, you’ve thought about it long enough. Now please do something about it.
Ginger says
Can anyone explain to me what the ‘thinking/theory’ is behind trying to eliminate the ‘free cell phone’ program for indigent folks? It is some form of discrimination? In this day and age of technology and the ongoing ‘recession’, it doesn’t make sense to further grind down the less financially fortunate, especially when one sees/hears/reads about HOW the financially fortunate achieved success ‘BY HOOK AND BY CROOK’.
Steve Dotson says
I’m Living at the San Diego Rescue Mission (transitional housing) and the Lifeline Program gave me a phone as long as I had a specific bed number. Check out the mailing status of your local shelter and see if their mailing address is verifiable for this service. Lifeline did all the verifying for me. A free cell phone at 1¢ per minute is worth the effort.
Homeless need the help for a hand up not just a hand out. Free phones can be a great start for somebody, like myself, to start rebuilding their life.
JW says
This was a huge oversight on the FCC’s part but apparently they are revamping the rules to help more than one person living at a physical address to receive
a free cellphone by defining different families or roomates as seperate economic units….still not done yet though. Meanwhile if you are poor enough that you
are living on the streets/cars or in transitional housing (homeless and women’s shelters) you are not able to get one due to the potential for fraud and abuse.
I hear they are working on instituting more controls like last four of the recipient’s
Social Security number which might eventually open it to these deserving citizens.
WH says
Let them have phones is they pay for them, not the rest of us.
RC says
I agree with article. The people who need help the most with free communication are the HOME-LESS. Dah! You can’t get a job without a phone. You cannot apply for unemployment benefits without a phone. You cannot apply for disability without a phone. Who’s the fool who came up with this restriction? Certainly, if someone can set up a PO Box, they ought to be allowed to get this phone! What a stupid law. Been there – done that! Asinine.