Free phones help Indy’s homeless get connected

Nowadays, it’s almost impossible to get by without a phone.   But for some unhoused people, going without a phone for days, weeks or months is common. With studies showing that homeless people have higher mortality rates, the cell phone is a necessity often inaccessible to those that need it most. & Indiana is no exception. National Alliance to End Homelessness statistics show that around 5,449 people in Indiana are homeless. Many local people and organizations are making efforts to change that statistic. & Michael Jewell, founder of family-based Constellation Wireless, is among them. In conjunction with a federal government program called the Lifeline program, Constellation Wireless is giving free phones to Indiana’s unhoused.& “This guy said to me, who slept under a bridge, ‘You know, I don’t know what would have happened to me if I had an emergency situation with no phone,’” Jewell said. “People that don’t have those kinds of issues about knowing where to go to sleep and safety and all of that, we kind of take it for granted.& This story is one of many Jewell has heard because of the Lifeline program. & Michael Jewell of Constellation Wireless partners with Turning Point Program Center to...