Words on the Street: Homeless People's Newspapers.

Abstract

Generally focus on poverty related political issues and free expression. I f, as journalist A. J. Liebling declared, freedom of the press belongs to those who own one, where can we find the real thoughts of people who can't afford to produce their own publications? How exactly are they speaking out? Where do you go to read firsthand about the real issues affecting their lives, or how public libraries can help them or what resources they need from us? An answer, and one that librarians should acquaint themselves with, is street newspapers. According to the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, between 1 and 2 million people experienced homelessness during 1996. The National Coalition for the Homeless cautions that this is a temporary circumstance difficult to pin down, but conservative estimates indicate at least half a million people on the streets during any one week in the United States. Other studies have suggested that as many as 7-12 million people have been homeless at some time. It is further known that homelessness has doubled and tripled in some cities over the past decade. At the same time, over half of the country's largest cities have now enacted anti-sleeping-in-public laws, 77% have passed anti-panhandling ordinances, and some have even outlawed sitting on side walks. While the mass media typically cover homelessness as something that affects other street newspapers tend to come from the grassroots and put a human face on the problem. Produced by homeless people and their advocates in urban North America and Europe, many?but not all? are sold on the street by homeless vendors who typically make 50-75 cents on the dol lar for each sale. Most are primarily written by non-domiciled and formerly homeless people. With names like Real Change, Streetwise, and Homeless Grapevine, they cover topics rarely given much space in the corporate press, and their viewpoint is often entirely different. For example most street papers list free-meal sites, legal services, and shelters. Some report on weather as it affects homeless people, provide profiles of street musicians, and review cheap places to eat. San Francisco's Street Sheet covers ev