--- title: %title% description: A simple way to lend humanity to homeless people, truckers against human trafficking and more. canonical: https://time.com/4418986/a-simple-tool-to-help-homeless-people-feel-human/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-22T16:13:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:59:42.773Z article:section: Ideas og:title: A Simple Tool to Help Homeless People Feel Human og:description: These are today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4418986/a-simple-tool-to-help-homeless-people-feel-human/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: A Simple Tool to Help Homeless People Feel Human twitter:description: These are today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # A Simple Tool to Help Homeless People Feel Human by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Jul 22, 2016 4:13 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Jul 22, 2016 4:13 PM UTC **1\.** [**Meet a simple but powerful tool to help homeless people feel human.**](http://nationswell.com/street-books-mobile-lending-library-homeless/) By Sybile Penhirin in NationSwell **2\.** [**How America’s truckers are fighting human trafficking.**](http://www.npr.org/2016/07/13/484801054/truckers-take-the-wheel-in-effort-to-halt-sex-trafficking) By Frank Morris at KCUR **3\.** [**How rehab can do patients more harm than good.**](https://www.propublica.org/article/new-report-problem-care-harms-almost-one-third-of-rehab-hospital-patients) By Marshall Allen at ProPublica **4\.** [**How a near-future hack could take down New York.**](http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/06/the-hack-that-could-take-down-nyc.html) By Reeves Wiedeman in New York Magazine **5\.** [**Close the digital divide: Put broadband in all HUD-funded housing.**](http://www.newamerica.org/oti/blog/hud-proposal-will-help-narrow-digital-divide-bringing-broadband-access-hud-funded-housing/) By Eric Null and Kathleen Watson at New America  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4418986/a-simple-tool-to-help-homeless-people-feel-human/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4418986/a-simple-tool-to-help-homeless-people-feel-human/"},"headline":"A Simple Tool to Help Homeless People Feel Human","datePublished":"2016-07-22T16:13:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:59:42.773Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4418986/a-simple-tool-to-help-homeless-people-feel-human/","keywords":["Innovation","New York","Rehab","human trafficking","broadband","homelessness"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"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":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4418986/a-simple-tool-to-help-homeless-people-feel-human/","name":"A Simple Tool to Help Homeless People Feel Human"}}]}] ```