Are food and shelter more important than a mobile phone? For the urban homeless, the answer to this question is unclear. Public phones are disappearing from cities, job services are increasingly accessible mainly through digital means, and modern society has become ever more accustomed to instant availability and dependent on personal communication devices. Each of these factors raises the importance of a mobile phone for finding and securing basic needs.

For society’s mainstream, the march toward technology mediated interactions is facilitating a reinterpretation of our environment. Sophisticated personal devices and context appropriate services enable us to map our progress; to communicate with whom we wish, when we wish; to create personal space in public forums; and to distract ourselves with media, music, and games. Yet as urban social interactions are undergoing transformation in the face of these technologies, the homeless, who share the same environment, are at risk of further marginalization. As such, it is incumbent upon us to examine the consequences for individuals who are not part of the mainstream yet whose lives are changing as a result of these technologies, whether or not they have access to them…