Last Updated: July 2025
Table of Contents
- TL;DR
- Introduction
- What does digital equity actually mean?
- How does lack of internet access affect people experiencing homelessness?
- Why is digital equity essential for employment and economic participation?
- Can internet access really be a matter of life and death?
- What steps actually close the digital divide?
- FAQ
TL;DR
Digital equity — the condition in which all people have the technology, connectivity, and skills to fully participate in society — is not a nice-to-have. It’s the foundation that housing stability, employment, and health outcomes are built on. According to the most recent data, 771,480 people in the U.S. are experiencing homelessness, and a majority of those in shelters can’t reliably get online to search for permanent housing, jobs, or medical care. If you want to take action now, check your eligibility for Human-I-T’s affordable devices and internet or donate technology to help close the gap.
Introduction
In the United States, 771,480 people were experiencing homelessness as of the most recent count — the highest figure since data collection began in 2007, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness’s 2025 State of Homelessness report. Two-thirds of residents in New York City homeless shelters can’t reliably access the internet. The majority say that if they could, they’d use it to find a home.
This isn’t a technology story. It’s a social equity story — one that plays out across housing, employment, and healthcare every single day. When working families, older adults, and communities of color are locked out of the digital world, they’re locked out of the systems that govern modern life: job applications, telehealth appointments, government benefits, even apartment listings.
At Human-I-T, when we say we want to create a world where everyone has equal access to digital technology, we’re describing digital equity. And achieving digital equity isn’t a lofty abstraction — it’s a prerequisite to any meaningful version of social equity. Here’s the evidence.
What does digital equity actually mean?
Digital equity is the condition in which every person and community has the technology, connectivity, and skills to fully participate in our society, democracy, and economy — without systemic barriers standing in the way.
According to the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA), digital equity is "a condition in which all individuals and communities have the information technology capacity needed for full participation in our society, democracy, and economy. Digital equity is necessary for civic and cultural participation, employment, lifelong learning, and access to essential services."
Human-I-T CEO and co-founder Gabe Middleton puts it this way:
"When we talk about digital equity, we envision a future in which all people and communities are empowered with the tools, skills, and knowledge they need to use digital platforms in their everyday lives."
But definitions alone don’t capture what’s at stake. We’d expand on these by acknowledging the digital divide head-on: Digital equity is a societal condition in which all people and communities are empowered to leverage digital tools, connectivity, and support without added systemic barriers to access, affordability, or usage in order to fully participate in our society, democracy, and economy.
With that shared understanding, let’s look at where the absence of digital equity causes the most damage — starting with housing.
How does lack of internet access affect people experiencing homelessness?
It extends their suffering — sometimes by months or years. Without reliable internet, people in shelters are cut off from the very tools they need to find permanent housing, apply for jobs, access benefits, and secure medical care.
According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness’s 2025 report, 771,480 people were experiencing homelessness in the United States — more than any year since federal data collection began in 2007. Homelessness has been rising for years, and digital disconnection makes the crisis worse.
The evidence from New York City shelters
A 2019 survey by the City Bar Justice Center asked residents of homeless family shelters what they would do with reliable internet access. The answers were direct: finding permanent housing (70%), finding a job (60%), finding medical care (63%), and accessing benefits like unemployment, SSI, SNAP, and Medicaid (45%).
Former residents confirmed these findings. One said they "might have been living in an apartment sooner." Another acknowledged they "would have been able to get access to a better job" if the shelter had internet. One resident went further: "The only reason I got out of the shelter was because a hotspot let me find out about Housing Connect — a lot of shelter residents don’t even know that exists."
Yet 67% of respondents in that same survey reported being unable to regularly access the internet through their shelter. That represents over 10,000 families in the New York City metro area alone. In March 2025, New York City Council Member Farah Louis introduced legislation specifically aimed at closing the digital divide for homeless New Yorkers — a sign that policymakers are starting to recognize the urgency.
The racial dimension compounds the crisis
In New York City, 86% of single adults experiencing homelessness and 93% of heads of households in family shelters are Black or Hispanic. This is compared to 53% of the city’s total population who identify as Black or Hispanic.
The gravity is clear: a lack of access to internet-connected technology ensures that houseless individuals — specifically houseless Black and brown individuals — keep toiling while trying to get back on their feet. These aren’t oversights. They’re systemic failures.
Why is digital equity essential for employment and economic participation?
Because the modern labor market runs on connectivity — and those without it get left behind, whether during a crisis or in the slow grind of an automating economy.
The pandemic made the stakes undeniable
The percentage of Americans primarily working from home climbed from 6% in February 2020 to over 33% by May 2020. Meanwhile, unemployment surged by 10 percentage points between January and April 2020. Approximately 90% of workers laid off during that initial wave held jobs that couldn’t be done remotely.
But the impact wasn’t uniform. Consider two Mississippi counties: Chickasaw County saw unemployment rocket from 5.1% to over 30%. Bolivar County? A rise from 7.5% to just 11.1% over the same period.
What explains the difference? Researchers from the Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy point to broadband internet access at home. Their 2022 study found that — controlling for age, race, sex, and local industry composition — counties with broadband adoption rates above 60% observed significantly lower spikes in unemployment than counties below that threshold.
Research from the University of Missouri reinforces this: "A one percentage point increase in the rate of broadband availability would have led to a 0.37 percentage point increase in the employment rate (p < 0.001)" in low-population rural counties during pandemic disruptions.
The affordability gap is the access gap
According to Pew Research Center, 43% of Americans earning less than $30,000 per year lack broadband-connected technology at home. Compare that to just 7% of those earning over $100,000. Affordability and accessibility are the two biggest barriers — not willingness.
The digital skills gap threatens the economy itself
Devices and broadband are only two pieces of the puzzle. The third — and arguably the trickiest — is digital skills.
According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025, 44% of workers’ skills will be disrupted in the next five years, and 63% of employers now identify skill gaps as the single biggest barrier to business transformation. An OECD report found that 32% of jobs face significant automation risk before the end of the decade. As the economy digitizes, "high-skill" will increasingly mean digital fluency — not just digital literacy.
The consequences are global. Accenture estimated the global economy stands to lose nearly $12 trillion in growth by 2028 if the digital skills gap isn’t addressed. And a study by the Learning and Work Institute found that 52% of employers observed young people leaving higher education without sufficiently advanced digital skills.
Disparities within the skills gap
While 82% of 16–24-year-olds have at least basic digital skills, only 35% of 55–74-year-olds do. The racial gap is equally stark: 49% of young white workers possess advanced digital skills, compared to just 17% of young Black workers and 32% of young Hispanic workers.
Here’s the grim math: low- and middle-skill workers — who are disproportionately older people of color — face a choice. Spend time and money they often don’t have to get online and build digital skills, or risk being pushed into increasingly precarious economic conditions as automation accelerates and middle-skill jobs evaporate.
How is allowing hundreds of millions of people to go without broadband-connected technology not a social equity issue?
Can internet access really be a matter of life and death?
Yes. The data is unambiguous: communities with low broadband adoption are sicker, hospitalized more often, and die from preventable conditions at higher rates.
Telehealth proved the connection — then exposed the gap
During the pandemic, telehealth usage climbed by 3,800% between April 2020 and April 2021. Patients and providers embraced it. According to 2024 data from the American Medical Association, 71.4% of physicians now use telehealth in their practices weekly — up from just 25.1% in 2018. And as of 2025, 54% of Americans have had at least one telehealth visit, with 116 million users preferring virtual care options.
Preliminary data from the University of Pennsylvania even suggested that the normally-observed health outcome disparity along racial lines was slightly less pronounced during the pandemic thanks to telehealth’s growth.
What happens when you can’t get online
According to the Federal Communications Commission, America’s least-connected counties have a 25% higher prevalence of obesity, a 41% higher prevalence of diabetes, and a 150% higher prevalence of preventable hospitalizations compared to counties with high broadband adoption.
The FCC found that counties in any quintile of broadband access have, on average, 9.6% lower diabetes prevalence than counties in the next lower quintile — even when controlling for educational attainment, age, and per capita income. Even in the counties with the highest diabetes rates in the country, each higher quintile of broadband access correlates to a 3.8% reduction in diabetes prevalence.
The counties in question are overwhelmingly rural, poor, and populated by Black, brown, and Indigenous people — the same communities least likely to have digital skills or broadband at home. Yet even where the digital skills gap is most pronounced, simply increasing access to broadband-connected technology produces measurable, positive health outcomes.
That’s not a technology trend. It’s a life-or-death equity issue.
What steps actually close the digital divide?
Digital inclusion — the deliberate work of removing barriers to access, affordability, skills, and support — is how we get from the digital divide to digital equity. If digital equity is the destination, digital inclusion is every step we take to get there.
At Human-I-T, we focus on four pillars of digital inclusion:
Affordable devices — refurbished laptops and tablets at prices working families can actually afford. Low-cost internet access — transparent pricing, no hidden fees, no credit checks. Digital skills training — meeting people where they are and guiding them toward becoming digital citizens. Tech support — because access means nothing without ongoing help when things break.
Collectively, these services move us toward a future where all individuals and communities have the technology and skills for full participation in society, democracy, and the economy.
Take the next step today. Check your eligibility for affordable devices and internet, donate technology to give devices a second life, or contact us to learn how your organization can partner with Human-I-T. No gimmicks. No gatekeeping. Just real access for real families.
FAQ
What is the difference between digital equity and digital inclusion?
Digital equity is the goal — a condition in which everyone has the technology, connectivity, and skills to fully participate in society. Digital inclusion is the process of getting there: the programs, policies, and organizations working to remove barriers to access, affordability, and digital literacy. You can’t achieve digital equity without digital inclusion efforts.
How does the digital divide affect health outcomes?
Directly. According to the FCC, America’s least-connected counties have a 41% higher prevalence of diabetes and 150% more preventable hospitalizations compared to well-connected counties. Broadband access enables telehealth, health information, and connection to benefits — and its absence compounds existing health disparities in rural and low-income communities.
Who is most affected by the digital divide?
Low-income households, older adults, people of color, rural communities, and people experiencing homelessness bear the greatest burden. For example, 43% of Americans earning under $30,000 lack broadband at home, and only 17% of young Black workers have advanced digital skills compared to 49% of young white workers. These gaps reinforce — and deepen — existing social inequities.
How can I help close the digital divide?
You can donate technology to Human-I-T to give devices a second life instead of sending them to a landfill. You can also donate funds to support digital inclusion programs, or spread the word about low-cost internet and device programs to families who need them. Every device donated is a device that can connect a family to housing, employment, and healthcare.
Does Human-I-T provide internet and devices to people in need?
Yes. Human-I-T provides affordable refurbished devices, low-cost internet with transparent pricing, digital skills training, and ongoing tech support. Check your eligibility to get connected today.
