I agree they should. But cutting through government tape is never easy-- it sounds like the shelter has been working on that for some time!
the caseworkers have called. it was suggested to the caseworkers by a transplant volunteer from Arizona, where from their understanding the govt phone programs cannot block shelters. however i am not in AZ. there is one company that agreed to mark the addresses of the shelter as multiple living. thats as far as the shelter has gotten. theyve tried writing these companies on letter head with a copy of the approved licenses including the fire code capacity and still nothing.
moving forward: ive suggested to the shelter about low cost pay plans and they have been working in their budget and donor lists to see if and what they could afford. also that would require the shelter to keep logins and payment info on file. im currently testing 2 iphone 5's on the text now system. i was very surprised to see the 2.99 a month plan from them but it was very disheartening to see that the only real used additions for this situation for 2.99 was ad free and caller id. so far the phones are set on the free plan and it does seem to be working only if a bit slower. i do like that there is a complete new phone number. the con is it must be connected to wifi in all situations.
within the next few weeks ill be looking into adding google voice to a few andriods as of right now ive only looked it up on my laptop and it auto connected me right away via my google account. the sparce-ness of instructions for gv kinda sets me off. id like to know its ins and outs before set up and delivery of the phone.
merry christmas all! & happy holidays to those who dont celebrate christmas