text: Domain crawl of the Luxembourg web domain (.lu) performed by Internet Archive on behalf of the National Library of Luxembourg / Bibliothèque nationale de Luxembourg 
   
   in June and July of 2017. ||||| This homeless man stays under the 8 Mile overpass on I-75 and accepts credit card donations. (Photo: Mike Campbell/WWJ) 
   
   DETROIT (CBS Detroit) Volunteers in Detroit and across the nation spent the night counting the homeless, and one of those men who lives in the cold is dealing with it in a, shall we say, unusual way. 
   
   He calls himself “Honest Abe” and he panhandles not just for pocket change, but also for the donor’s credit and debit cards. He accepts cards with a reader attached to his cell phone. 
   
   His real name is Abe Hagenston and he’s been homeless in Detroit for seven years or so. The 8 Mile overpass on I-75 is home. 
   
   Looking at that bleak, gray freeway facade with the wind whipping through, one could imagine he’s happy about the relatively mild winter metro Detroit has experienced so far this year. 
   
   Not so fast. 
   
   “It’s not really that easy, what we’re lacking is snow,” Abe told WWJ’s Mike Campbell. “Of course, there’s no snow removal. I used to look forward to that, doing some shoveling.” 
   
   Without the extra cash, he hasn’t made enough money this winter to buy new eyeglasses, he said, and he could use a new prescription. 
   
   But as a bonus, with the extra time Abe says he and a group of fellow homeless have organized themselves “like a union” to panhandle in shifts. He also used the extra time to figure out a way to make donations more efficient. Don’t have any change in your pocket? No problem. 
   
   “I take VISA, MasterCard, American Express,” Abe told Campbell. “I’m the only homeless guy in America who can take a credit card. It’s all done safely and securely through square.com.” 
   
   Square readers attach to credit cards and basically turn a smartphone into a card reader. They cost about $10 and square providers charge vendors a fee per transaction. In the case of itunes, the charge is 2.75 percent per transaction. 
   
   It’s unknown how many homeless occupy Detroit — or how many people have trusted Abe with their credit card information — but last year’s count of people who live on the streets of Detroit included a rough estimate of 2,700. 
   
   This year’s count isn’t ready yet, but people like Stacy Brackins, a case manager with mental health agency Detroit Central City spent the night cruising around town with gloves, hats, sleeping bags to count homeless men and women and try to encourage them to seek shelter. 
   
   Hundreds of volunteers were involved in the count. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, the number of homeless in Michigan had declined 6 percent in the most recent report. There were an estimated 578,424 people experiencing homelessness across the country in 2014. 
   
   How many homeless were ready to accept offers of warmth and shelter in Detroit Wednesday night? Some were, others were not. 
   
   “Some, they just don’t want to come inside — they want their freedom,” Brackins told the Detroit Free Press. ||||| (CNN) Forget the old "I don't have change" excuse you give panhandlers. Abe Hagenston has an app for that. 
   
   Well, more like a card reader. He takes credit cards through Square as he works the corner of Woodward Avenue and 8 Mile Road in Detroit. 
   
   Oh, and he has a website too. 
   
   "Being homeless is my business now," Hagenston told CNN affiliate WDIV . "My business is being homeless." 
   
   On the web 
   
   Through his website, people can make contributions to a collection of homeless people, hire them for odd jobs or even report fake panhandlers who drive from the suburbs. 
   
   "I'm trying to turn this situation into something that will not only help me but help others," he said. 
   
   Hagenston's been on the streets for 10 years and goes by the name "Honest Abe." 
   
   "I've rebuilt my life a few times but this time I'm not getting it," he said. "People don't realize how tough it is to come from nothing when you don't have any family or any friends." ||||| Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period.
target: – It's been a mild winter in Detroit, which means less snow for Abe Hagenston to shovel, and he could certainly use the income, CBS Detroit reports. Instead, Hagenston—who's been homeless for a decade—used his free time to set up a website and buy a credit-card reader, according to CNN. “Being homeless is my business now,” the 42-year-old tells WDIV. “My business is being homeless.” CBS reports the card reader from Square costs about $10 and works with any smartphone. It means Hagenston now accepts Visa, MasterCard, and American Express while panhandling, so people who tell him they don't have any change need a new excuse. Visitors to Hagenston's website get a welcome video from "Honest Abe" and can make donations to him or other homeless people who've signed up on the site or hire them for odd jobs, CNN reports. According to WDIV, Hagenston updates the site at the public library. "I’ve rebuilt my life a few times," he says. "People don’t realize how tough it is to come from nothing when you don’t have any family or any friends." In addition to the website and card reader, Hagenston is trying to organize fellow panhandlers "like a union," CBS reports.