--- title: Detroit Homeless Man Accepts Credit Cards and Has a Website description: "Being homeless is my business" canonical: https://time.com/4200221/detroit-homeless-man-accepts-credit-cards-and-has-a-website/ author: NBC News article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-29T18:52:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:29:28.276Z og:title: Detroit Homeless Man Accepts Credit Cards and Has a Website og:description: "Being homeless is my business" og:url: https://time.com/4200221/detroit-homeless-man-accepts-credit-cards-and-has-a-website/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf15c23959b7edfe8/69887b460b72e31c106e7e2e/credit-card-swiper-homeless.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2448 og:image:height: 1377 og:image:alt: Technology That Helps og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Detroit Homeless Man Accepts Credit Cards and Has a Website twitter:description: "Being homeless is my business" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf15c23959b7edfe8/69887b460b72e31c106e7e2e/credit-card-swiper-homeless.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Detroit Homeless Man Accepts Credit Cards and Has a Website > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=40ac1da9-1e7b-4196-bab8-9fc74c759628&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) by [Elizabeth Chuck / NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## Elizabeth Chuck / NBC News Jan 29, 2016 6:52 PM UTC  Technology Helps: A jewelry vendor at an outdoors craft market holds her credit card reader attached to a smart device for mobile point of sales activity Technology Helps: A jewelry vendor at an outdoors craft market holds her credit card reader attached to a smart device for mobile point of sales activity Keith Getter—Moment Editorial/Getty Images by [Elizabeth Chuck / NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## Elizabeth Chuck / NBC News Jan 29, 2016 6:52 PM UTC Can you spare a swipe? A Detroit homeless man has taken panhandling high-tech: He accepts credit cards on the 8 Mile highway overpass where he lives and created a website where he can be hired to work odd jobs. Abe Hagenston, 42, who goes by “Honest Abe” on his [website](http://awesleyh.wix.com/spange), told [NBC affiliate WDIV ](http://www.clickondetroit.com/community/homeless-man-in-detroit-accepts-credit-cards-offers-work-on-odd-jobs)he has been homeless for about a decade. He takes credit card donations through Square, a credit card reader that connects to cell phones — although he said his phone has been stolen before. “People don’t realize how tough it is to come from nothing when you don’t have…” [_Read the rest of this story from our partners at NBC News_](http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/now-accepting-credit-cards-detroit-homeless-man-abe-hagenston-goes-n506946?cid=par-time%5F20160129) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4200221/detroit-homeless-man-accepts-credit-cards-and-has-a-website/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4200221/detroit-homeless-man-accepts-credit-cards-and-has-a-website/"},"headline":"Detroit Homeless Man Accepts Credit Cards and Has a Website","datePublished":"2016-01-29T18:52:55.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:29:28.276Z","description":"\"Being homeless is my business\"","url":"https://time.com/4200221/detroit-homeless-man-accepts-credit-cards-and-has-a-website/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Economy","viral","Donations","homeless","credit card"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf15c23959b7edfe8/69887b460b72e31c106e7e2e/credit-card-swiper-homeless.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Elizabeth Chuck / NBC News"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf15c23959b7edfe8/69887b460b72e31c106e7e2e/credit-card-swiper-homeless.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Technology That Helps","caption":"Technology Helps: A jewelry vendor at an outdoors craft market holds her credit card reader attached to a smart device for mobile point of sales activity","creditText":"Keith Getter—Moment Editorial/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4200221/detroit-homeless-man-accepts-credit-cards-and-has-a-website/","name":"Detroit Homeless Man Accepts Credit Cards and Has a Website"}}]}] ```