BROADCASTS.com

We think of the homeless as people on the street, but there are far more people living in transition - couch surfing or sleeping in the back seat of their cars. If you were down and out, if you had no money, do you know where to go for food and shelter?

Enter Chalmers, an app for the homeless developed by Ample Labs. An app to help the people on the street find essential services like food, shelter, and even help them in crisis. Today on the show, we interview the founder of Ample Labs, CG Chen. We ask how a homeless person makes use of an app? Should we try to make change with them, or give it to a charity? Oh, and there's a few reality checks along the way. 

[0:00 - 4:19] Intro - this Podcast is brought to you by EQ bank and the EQ Bank Savings Plus Account. 

[4:20 - 7:15] Money mistakes and makeups

[7:16 - 8:04] Tell us about what Ample Labs is doing. A tech non-profit Using technology to empower people at risk. 

[8:05 - 9:14] Do homeless people have smartphones? Where do they get them? Only 10% of homeless are on the street, they are chronically homeless. 80% of people experiencing homelessness are hidden.

[9:15 - 10:04] Most people are 3 bad months from homelessness. Most of us aren’t 3 months from becoming a millionaire. No one decides to become homeless. 4/10 Shelter residents are refugees. 

[10:05 - 10:54] How does the Chalmers bot deal with foreign languages? 

[10:55 - 11:54] Earlier episode with refugee, Fatma. Majority of people turn to Google in these situations. . But you won’t always get the most relevant websites. 

[11:55 - 14:29] How did you come up with this idea? CG’s story of a close friend becoming homeless. 

[14:30 - 15:24] Toronto’s rent is less affordable than San Francisco’s. 

[15:25 - 16:20] Building technology in the tech sector is creates wealth, but they need to contribute to the solution

[16:21 - 17:29] How do you promote Chalmers? Word of mouth, reaching out in the communities, and working with support services. 

[17:30 - 18:49] Is there competition in the social good space? More apps for the homeless? Another app called Helpseeker. It’s competitive but we’re all working together. 

[18:50 - 20:09] How did Chalmers expand out of Toronto? Police officers, and other first responders benefit from Chalmers. 

[20:10 - 23:19] I tried Chalmers (https://chalmers.amplelabs.co/). It's incredibly fast. Do you work with the city services? How do you know beds are available? How do you know there’s food available? We work with 211Ontario. Chalmers enables you to find real time alternatives. You can’t do this with Google. 

[23:20 - 24:59] What’s the future of this technology? Can Chalmers help find volunteers?  Would it translate into more? Helping people 

[25:00 - 26:24] What are the next steps for you? How do we measure the impact? 20% retention on Chalmers. We want people off the app, that means success. How do we scale into more communities? The software is modular so we can partner

[26:25 - 27:09] What’s the end goal for Chalmers? Barriers interested in putting Chalmers on Ipads at bus stops. 

[27:10 - 29:42] Myth Busting questions - Should we give money to the homeless? Or is it better to give to  charity? Give someone change, it’s not big enough to be harmful, but more importantly, have a conversation. Buy them a meal. The biggest impact is to connect and have a conversation. 

[29:43 - 30:45] What’s a tip to have a conversation with a homeless person?

[30:46 - 32:29] A nice story on the TTC and helping people out. Homeless is because of segregation. It’s not us against them. We’re all people. 

[32:30 - 32:59] You’re crazy, looking for your next hit. Attend a community event, get volunteers to talk with people and the myth goes away. 

[33:00 - 32:39] How does someone help Chalmers? Chalmers Crowdfunding campaign. Volunteer. 

[33:40 - 35:04] Rapid fire questions. 

[35:05 - 35:59] What’s it like being a founder?

[36:00 - 38:57] How can you improve your credit score?

[38:58 -40:08] Outro