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#Hack4Homelessness, our social impact hackathon, begins tomorrow night! (Running 15-17 September 2017) We spoke to Mark Cohen, CTO for our sponsors Domain Group, who has always been bothered by the lack of energy our society puts into homelessness.

Domain Group sees getting involved with #hack4homelessness as a light bulb moment!  They offer an ecosystem of leading multi-platform property solutions and provide a service to help people get themselves and their families into homes – whether buying or renting.  Therefore, supporting our #hack4homelessness is a logical extension of who they are and what they do. It sits perfectly at the intersection of personal passion and Domain’s mission.

Mark is a vocal champion of innovation and capital-A Agile as cultural values, and believes all business needs a higher purpose. He was also motivated to get involved on a personal level as whenever he walks through the CBD he gets “the feeling we spend way too little energy on homelessness within our own community – As the old saying goes, charity begins at home – and this is a problem in our own streets, affecting our own people”.

Mark will be on Sunday’s judging panel and believes homelessness is not a problem that requires a big bang solution – every little bit can help, so “If we can help one person find their feet and get them off the streets, we’ve made a difference to the world.  If we can get a few people who were queuing to get into a shelter every night to get into a share house together, we’ve made a difference to them and the people who take their places in the shelters. That’s part of the beauty in trying to help”.

Domain Group are looking forward to seeing some lateral thinking come out of the hackathon. Mark suggests, “ideas that could be pursued to create finished products, maybe by looking into alternative sources of accommodation beyond the usual sources and by tapping into disused commercial metro land or building with basement spaces that could be plumbed and used, who knows what great ideas people may come up with!”

Vibewire’s #Hack4Homelessness brings Australia’s leading technology, engineering and social impact students, social entrepreneurs and startups together to tackle the challenge of homelessness. Running from 15-17 September 2017, you can register as a participant here.