Silicon Valley’s forgotten poor find an unlikely hero

"Hero"? There are people who have been working for years, decades even, on the homelessness and poverty problem in the valley. Those are the heroes. This is a guy who likes being in the spotlight, and has been out of it for too long since being ousted from his company.

If he's sincere, he'll get in there and do the real work, and won't pretend that giving talks at a tennis club is helping the disenfranchised. I have serious doubts he even understands what questions to ask yet, much less what the answers are. Homelessness, poverty, addiction, mental illness, are incredibly complex topics.

I've been involved (not on a daily basis, but with some regularity) in a variety of on-the-ground activism and volunteer work for the homeless in Austin for about three years now. I don't even begin to presume I know how to solve the underlying problems. But, I know how to make a meal and serve it, so I've done that a bunch. I know how to drive someone to an appointment or to their safe sleeping spot, so I've done that a bunch. I know how to talk to city council members, so I've done that. And, I'm white and middle class, so I can run interference with police when they're being assholes to homeless folks, so I've done that. None of those things gets you profiled in the Guardian, but they actually help a real live person make it through another day.

I have significant doubts about the sincerity of his change of heart, and I have even more significant doubts about the impact he will make...I fear he may redirect resources from good programs into programs that are poorly thought out based on a poor understanding of what the problems are and how to remedy them.