Begging for change

He is an unlikely celebrity, but now Tim Edwards, a homeless man begging at a busy underpass in Houston, Texas, has become the ‘face of homelessness' in a huge marketing campaign that aims to highlight the plight of the world's millions of homeless people...

Just as new President Barack Obama called for Change, Tim Edwards was also asking for Change - of a different sort.

Just one of the hundreds of thousands of homeless Americans, ex-office manager Mr Edwards has been enduring life on the streets since August 2004, unable to shake off his alcohol dependency.

Now, with the launch of a new website, the attention grabbing ‘Pimp This Bum,' Mr Edwards has become the world's first ‘online bum' and given a face to the anonymous global problem of homelessness.

Traffic to the site has been picking up hugely in recent weeks and many visitors are drawn solely by the website's provocative name, which of course, was the whole idea.

During regular webcasts, visitors are able to ask questions about Mr Edwards' descent into homelessness and his life on the streets. They can also donate money and goods to help him get off the streets.

Kevin Dolan, 55, a Marketing Specialist from the Houston suburb of Katy, started the website with his 24-year-old son, Sean.

Sean explained the site's unusual name: "If the site had been called ‘Help the Homeless,' many web surfers might just have clicked on past," says Sean.

This week, Mr Edwards is scheduled to enter an alcohol detox programme at the Seattle-based Sunray Treatment and Recovery, which is providing the pricey 35-day programme free of charge.

Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County President Anthony Love says ‘to pimp anyone is not something' he would endorse, but Mr Edwards says that the new site and people's positive reactions to it have brought him and other homeless people a ‘lot of hope.'

Picture by www.pimpthisbum.com