Assurance Wireless, a federal Lifeline Assistance program, hopes to provide the homeless and impoverished with free cell phones and service by early 2013, according to an article on the Sacramento Bee.
"In this day and age, having access to communications is not a luxury," said Jayne Wallace of Assurance Wireless to The Sacramento Bee newspaper. "Having a cell phone can make a huge difference in the lives of many people."
The program was created by congressional mandate and approved last week by the Public Utilities Commission, and those hoping to receive the free cell phone and service have to meet certain guidelines to be eligible. California residents who receive Medicaid, food stamps, and other federal or state aid, as well as those with annual income below $15,000, can apply for the Lifeline program.
Officials still need to sort out the logistics of how the phones will be distributed, but the program has the potential to help many more people than California’s current programs for phone bills.
California currently helps about 1.5 million people pay their phone bills, but the service only covers landline telephones wired to permanent homes, according to PUC spokesman Andrew Kotch.
The new program, in contrast, has eliminated the rule requiring a permanent address, which will help the homeless and people in nursing homes and shelters, but imposed stricter rules to prevent duplicate benefits.
The program does raise practical concerns, such as where people would charge their cell phones and issues of how the homeless will learn about the program, but homeless advocates hope the 250 free voice minutes and 250 free text messages per month will help the state’s poor to find the resources and potential job opportunities that they need.
