A wise man and indentured servant who did not need a personnel Internet account to learn.
Posted on 12/28/2010 7:34:41 AM PST by Iron Munro
Jackie Dones and her three daughters recognize the value of the Internet.
They have homework and class projects, job searches and employment applications all waiting for them in cyberspace.
But for Dones, a part-time cashier at Family Dollar and a resident of the North Boulevard Homes, a public housing project, paying $90 a month for cable, phone and Internet is a struggle. Evidence of the struggle: the family was without Internet for two months until just before Christmas, when Dones managed to pay the late fee on her account, providing at least a brief reprieve.
"They'll probably turn it off tomorrow," she said.
Dones is about to get a break.
The Tampa Housing Authority has secured a $2.1 million federal grant to provide broadband Internet access to 23 public housing sites. Details are being finalized with Bright House Networks, which will provide the service, and residents will be connected beginning March 1.
The project will be the first such one in Florida and one of the few in the nation.
Internet access will be available to about 3,400 residents for free for the first two years. After two years, residents will be able to pay for the access for the next three years for $18.35 per month.
In addition to having Internet access, the housing authority also will make available a selection of computer training options, including basic computer and Internet keyboarding, Microsoft A+ Certification and an online computer curriculum for school-age children.
The program also will help residents get computers of their own by offering 1,000 computers for only $125 and will install almost 200 computers in two communities to offer residents a designated work space. The authority also will launch a website for residents to provide information on housing, employment opportunities, and the like.
While some might view Internet access in subsidized housing as a luxury, housing authority officials don't. They say Internet access in this day and age is a basic necessity that can mean the difference between moving out of public housing or not.
"Having access to the Internet is like having a stove or refrigerator or a phone. You can't function without it," said Jerome Ryans, the authority's president and CEO. "We've got to break the cycle of the revolving door of public housing. We have to give them the help to get things done."
Having the Internet consistently available at home will make a huge difference, Dones said. During periods when she didn't have it in her home, she went to the library. But there's a time limit on surfing the Internet at the library, and that made it difficult for her to fill out a job application or do homework for her behavioral health courses at Brewster Technical College.
"You're trying to fill out an application and you feel like it's a big test because it's timed," Dones said.
THA isn't the first public housing authority to offer Internet access to residents. In San Francisco, the city, the housing authority and a nonprofit organization called Internet Archived have partnered to make Internet access available to 6,000 public housing households.
The access has only been widely available for a few months, said Ralf Muehlen, network administrator for Internet Archive, but he says he already can point to specific examples of lives improved by the service.
"One woman is pursuing her education. She had to go to a computer lab at San Francisco State University to use a computer lab. It was a 45-minute trip. Now the need to do that trip is gone," said Muehlen, meaning the woman can spend that time studying, not in transit.
cell phone should be free also under the new obama giveaway program....
Oh for the love of God...
"Conservatives" like you will be the death of this Nation, mark my words.
[behavioral health courses at Brewster Technical College.]
Just what the world needs - another social worker with a welfare entitlement attitude.
how much ya wanna bet that any of these people EVER see a bill for $18.95 for their internet service?
The EU Parliament recently declared universal broadband access to be a “basic human right”. Looks like that’s the direction we’re headed folks.
No Cable No Hi speed Internet No Cell Service No Broadcast TV.
I pay $86 per month for my land line phone,$90 per month for Hughes Net so I can have Internet access, $120 per month for cell phones that are forwarded to the land line most of the time and $80 for Directv ( so I can watch O’Boozer destroy my country).
Where is my Free Stuff?
Believe it or not, it’s actually possible to be conservative without being stupid. Denying children food or the wherewithal to study or succeed in school is plain ****ing stupid. It just should not be that hard to devise ways to ensure that children have what they actually need without doing violence to normal morality. All anybody needs for enough internet access to study is a 56K-baud modem; if you could ensure that kids had that much at home and normal internet at schools, that should probably suffice. As far as providing broadband television to anybody for free, at that point youre right and it shouldn’t be happening.
And are we supposed to supply them with the computer and phone service at home to access the internet you want to provide to them?
Likewise in our present situation Abraham Lincoln could have grown up to be a shoe salesman if everybody else in his school had internet access and he didn't and anybody was grading on any sort of a curve.
I got $50 that says she buys Starbucks a few times a week too.
Where the hell can you pay for those three services and only pay $90? I want to move there.
If you have a cell phone, you are probably helping to pay for her FREE cell phone.
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