'In a Pinch, If You Have Nothing': An Exploration of Money-Making Apps in Homeless Shelters

Unhoused individuals in U.S. urban shelters increasingly leverage internet technologies for income-earning and financial management. We investigate app-mediated work used by these communities such as online gig, shift, or microtask labor that reduce barriers to earning, but may be unreliable or present other risks. We find that participants use a patchwork of online platforms that together can help meet income needs, but often treat users unfairly or fail to deliver on expected earnings. Along with a diverse array of gig economy apps, potentially exploitative low-pay apps offer lower-end markets for labor including “microtasks”—surveys, data-entry, app testing, or gaming—and gambling. These apps often exhibit dark patterns that take advantage of individuals’ urgent need for cash, imposing excessive time costs or presenting scams, unpredictable costs, risk of malware, and other harms; we draw analogies to “Poverty Industries” such as payday loans or pawn shops. Nonetheless, these apps’ popularity suggests that monetary incentives could be used to drive uptake of positive interventions among vulnerable groups, with appropriate precautions against malicious actors.