Street Newspapers: Bootstrap Initiatives
In the United States, as well as overseas, homeless people are writing, publishing, and selling their own newspapers. The 2003 North American Directory of Street Newspapers, published by the National Coalition for the Homeless in September 2003, reported there were over fifty street newspapers across the United States and Canada.
Many street newspaper publishers belong to a professional organization, the North American Street Newspaper Association (NASNA), organized in Chicago in 1996. NASNA holds an annual conference, offers business advice and services, and supports street newspaper publishers in the same way that any professional organization supports its membership. They also lobby the government on homeless issues.
Generally, the street newspapers are loaned on credit to homeless vendors who then sell them for $1 or $2 each. At the end of the workday, the vendor pays the publisher the agreed-upon price and pockets the remainder as profit. For example, Boston's Spare Change newspaper publishes 10,000 copies every two weeks. Vendors purchase newspapers for $0.25 each and resell them for $1.00, pocketing $0.75 for each paper sold. New York City's Street News gives the vendors thirty free copies, allows them to buy additional copies for $0.25 each, and the papers are sold for $1.25.
This cooperative arrangement among publishers, vendors, and consumers has many benefits:
- Creation of jobs
- Supports the work ethic
- Accommodates the mobility of homeless people
- Provides reliable employment despite crisis living conditions
- Informs the public about homelessness
- Erases stereotypes of the drunken, illiterate, "unworthy" homeless person
- Gives the writers and vendors a sense of accomplishment
- Provides immediate cash to people who desperately need it
Most of the homeless newspaper vendors have not been able to earn enough just from selling newspapers to move themselves from homelessness, but as the quality and availability of these publications grow, homeless people envision the street newspaper industry becoming a means of moving tens of thousands from homelessness.
STREET NEWS, NEW YORK CITY.
The earliest known homeless publication, Street News, was launched in 1989 by the New York Times and the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority. By 1991, when the publication suffered from a scandal involving misuse of funds, Street News was boasting some 25,000 copies per issue, which then fell to 6,000 by 2005. The paper is known for its radical political stance and unusual stories.
SPARE CHANGE, BOSTON.
Begun in 1992 as one of the nation's first street newspapers to benefit the homeless, Spare Change has been published every other week by the Homeless Empowerment Project (HEP) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Its stated mission is to "play a role in ending homelessness in our community by providing income, skill development and self-advocacy opportunities to people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness." The newspaper provides a forum for creative expression and advocacy for homeless individuals. Along with the production, distribution, and sale of the street newspaper, HEP operates a training center for teaching computer skills to the homeless. They also sponsor a writer's workshop and promote a speaker's bureau. In June 2005, however, the paper was facing an uncertain future, with an operating loss of $4,000 per issue, according to Jay Fitzgerald in the Boston Herald (June 16, 2005).
Day Labor
Regular work, characterized by a permanent and ongoing relationship between employer and employee, does not figure significantly in the lives and routines of most homeless, as it is usually unavailable or inaccessible. Homelessness makes getting and keeping regular work difficult due to the lack of a fixed address, communication, and, in many cases, the inability to get a good night's sleep, clean up, and dress appropriately. Studies have found that the longer a person is homeless, the less likely he or she is to pursue wage labor and the more likely that person is to engage in some other form of work. For those who do participate in regular jobs, in most cases, the wages received are not sufficient to escape from living on the street.
Day labor, wage labor secured on a day-to-day basis, typically at lower wages and changing locations, is somewhat easier for the homeless to secure. Day labor may involve unloading trucks, cleaning up warehouses, cutting grass, or washing windows. Day labor often fits the abilities of the homeless because transportation may be provided to the work site, and appearance, work history, and references are less important. Equally attractive to a homeless person, day labor usually pays cash at quitting time, thus providing immediate pocket money. Day labor jobs are, however, by definition, without a future. They can provide for daily survival on the street but are not generally sufficient to get a person off the street. Consequently, many homeless turn to shadow work.
Shadow Work
Shadow work refers to methods of getting money that are outside the normal economy, some of them illegal. These methods include panhandling, scavenging, selling possessions, picking up cans and selling them, selling one's blood or plasma, theft, or peddling illegal goods, drugs, or services. A homeless person seldom engages in all of these activities consistently but may turn to some of them as needed. Researchers estimate that 60% of homeless people engage in some shadow work. Shadow work is more common for homeless men than homeless women. Theft is more common for younger homeless persons.
A mixture of institutionalized assistance, wage labor, and shadow work is typical of those who live on the streets. Studies have found that many homeless people are very resourceful in surviving the rigors of street life and recommend that this resourcefulness be somehow channeled into training that can lead to jobs paying a living wage. Some observers suggest, however, that homeless people who have adapted to street life may likely need transitional socialization programs as much as programs that teach them a marketable skill.
Institutionalized Assistance
Institutionalized assistance refers to "established or routine monetary assistance patterned in accordance with tradition, legislation, or organizations" (David Snow et al., Material Survival Strategies on the Street: Homeless People as Bricoleurs, Homelessness in America, edited by the National Coalition for the Homeless, Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press, 1996). This would include institutionalized labor, such as that provided by soup kitchens, shelters, and rehabilitation programs that sometimes pay the homeless for work related to facility operation. The number of people employed by these agencies is a small percentage of the homeless population. In addition, the pay—room, board, and a small stipend—tends to tie the homeless to the organization rather than providing the means to get off the street.
Institutionalized assistance also includes income supplements provided by the government, family, and friends. According to Material Survival Strategies on the Street, while a considerable number of the homeless may receive some financial help from family or friends, it is usually small. Women seem to receive more help from family and friends and to remain on the streets for shorter periods of time than men. Cash from family and friends seems to decline with the amount of time spent on the street and with age.
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