Although the Internet has changed the world for everyone, it may be changing lives most profoundly for low-income families. For the middle class, it has simplified communication and access to information. For low-income Americans, it has opened up whole new channels of communication and information that weren't previously available.

One Economy Corporation, a not-for-profit that brings computers, broadband access, Internet content and technical training to residents of low-income housing, has found that its programs encourage these residents to take online classes, improve the quality of their schoolwork, apply for jobs, start businesses and do their banking and shopping online. Their job performance and ability to care for their families’ health are also enhanced.

Even more important, One Economy’s participants report feeling more capable and less disadvantaged. Technology not only empowers them to take action, but enriches their lives emotionally. Some say that home Internet access has helped them overcome depression; others say their children feel less different from their peers in school.

Computer students in One Economy's Miami project

In interviews conducted by an independent research firm, One Economy participants in San Jose and Miami credited Internet access with helping them keep up with life in their home countries through newspapers, news broadcasts and music; stay in touch with far-flung family members through e-mail, online chat or webcam; navigate government bureaucracies; and keep their children away from drugs and gangs. Others had become more involved in community, school or business activities as a result of gaining Internet access, and some had become more politically active or better able to advocate for themselves and others.

Dave McConnell, One Economy’s vice president for access services, says that broadband access multiplies the Internet’s benefits for low-income families. “Low-income families will do more with broadband than with dial-up,” he says. “One of their biggest problems is time – and it takes time to get food stamps, take care of medical services, and so forth….[Broadband is] easier, less frustrating and always available.”
 

One Economy's Two-Track Strategy

But delivering broadband to low-income families hasn’t been easy. High-speed Internet access is often unavailable in the neighborhoods where these families live, especially in smaller apartment buildings.

“The computer is my friend.”  -- Hien, a Vietnamese- American retiree in San Jose who uses the computer provided by One Economy as a lifeline to loved ones and to the wider world.

Getting these buildings wired for broadband has required technical ingenuity, financial expertise and political savvy. McConnell says that One Economy has developed two primary strategies. One strategy is to link up with funding programs run by organizations such as the National Equity Fund or New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, which aggregate tax credits for housing rehabilitation. Typically the rehab projects in which One Economy participates include funding not only for high-speed access networks but for computers, training, technical support and a private-label version of One Economy’s Web portal, Beehive.org.

The second strategy involves lobbying state governments to require developers to put high-speed access into low-income housing, or to provide incentives for them to do so. Over the last three years, working together with telecom companies, One Economy has succeeded in changing policies in 42 states. They have also educated developers to understand that building high-speed access networks is feasible and relatively inexpensive. “We've changed the way tax credit financing works,” McConnell says.
 

Mount Hope Reaches out to Verizon

Visionary housing developers have also taken the lead in bringing broadband to their developments. Mount Hope Housing Company, a community development organization that rehabilitates and manages affordable housing in Bronx, New York, reached out to Verizon to bring high-speed access to the buildings it manages. Mount Hope manages 34 small buildings scattered over 49 square blocks, ranging from about 6 units to 50 units per building.

“Service providers don’t like to do deals with small buildings,” says Kevin Donovan of Midtown Technologies, the technical firm that worked with Verizon and Mount Hope. (Midtown has also been involved in a number of One Economy projects.) Donovan devised a plan to bring Verizon T1 service to Mount Hope’s largest building and connect the other buildings through point-to-point wireless. “It’s far less expensive than going below ground, and just as effective in terms of uptime,” explains Herb Hauser, Midtown’s president. About 1000 Mount Hope apartments now have access to Verizon broadband, with download speeds of 1.5 Mbps.

Shaun Belle, Mount Hope’s president and CEO, plans eventually to open up this network and allow local businesses and housing developers to tap into it, essentially making Mount Hope the local ISP. “One of inadequacies in this area of the Bronx is limited DSL service for anyone, especially businesses,” he says. “We’d like to have the network accessible.”

Hauser points out that, although tax credits were used in the first year, the Mount Hope project was designed to be self-sustaining in the long run. Revenues from tenants and from neighboring businesses and property owners are expected to cover costs going forward. “It only works if someone is making money on it,” he says.

Belle agrees, saying that paying for the service is important for users, too, even if rates are below market level: “Our philosophy is, don’t give things away for free – there needs to be ownership….If people are paying something for it, they value it more.”  

To promote use of the data network, Mount Hope helps residents sign up for Verizon service and offers training through organizations such as Per Scholas and Older Adults Technology Services. Using a grant from Verizon, it also provides free or low-cost refurbished computers to residents who sign up for classes. A “tech carnival” in September brought an enormous response from seniors who wanted to learn how to use e-mail, online banking, and other resources.

Mount Hope also engaged One Economy to create a local Beehive portal with information about neighborhood educational and medical programs and community activities, and it has partnered with two local newspapers to bring community news online. “We’ve gotten very positive feedback,” Belle says. “Folks who haven't used this typs of technology before are very excited about it.”

Other applications are still in the planning stages. Belle envisions online discussion groups, programs to help residents with money management, and even internal applications like building security and work order management.

“It should have an enormous impact on people’s lives by expanding their reach,” Belle says. “They can explore the world without leaving their neck of the woods, see things they couldn't imagine, interact with others, and gather information in a large way.”
 

Creating Sustainable Models

These pioneering projects have shown that broadband can be as affordable and as useful in low-income housing as it is anywhere else.

Over the last several years, Midtown Technologies and other integrators have developed a set of methods for bringing data networks into older buildings and overcoming design and structural complexities to distribute the network to apartments in cost-effective and aesthetically pleasing ways. Mount Hope, One Economy and others have devised innovative financing methods and found ways to help residents take advantage of broadband access.

With all of the knowledge and experience that these organizations have accumulated, there is reason to hope that the digital divide may become a thing of the past. One Economy’s McConnell believes it’s time to move on to the next phase: “The demos and pilots are over,” he says. “We’re going to scale and creating sustainable models. We’re going to institutionalize what we do in the affordable housing industry as a whole.”