Before you downvote, I'm all for providing employment for people who are unfortunate enough to be homeless, however I think the language chosen to describe the project (i.e. using the phrase "I'm Clarence, a 4G hotspot" on the shirts) is really what is causing the problem, as it seems to be what is seen as objectifying and depersonalising the vendor in a way that (as the article suggests) does the opposite of drawing attention to the person and their plight and ignores the wealth divide between the vendors and the customers.

I can't help thinking that the negative PR this is going to inevitably generate could have been completely avoided (and possibly paved the way for more permanent/better/similar experiments on a bigger scale in the future) if a different set of branding/wording had been used from the outset.

For what it's worth, I think that giving people an "honest day of work and pay" is an amazingly positive thing to do. You can't argue with Clarence!