Selling on the Street

Writing about the homeless is tricky. For one thing, they are a remarkably internet-savvy group. Every time I write about them, I hear from them. This delights me, and terrifies me all at the same time. It delights me because traditionally homeless have not had a voice for themselves, but in this internet age, they have an electronic presence. This gives them a way to speak. It terrifies me because, well…I’m not homelesss and I really don’t have even a bit of understanding what that would mean. I know I run the risk of sounding exactly like the person I am: a middle-class suburban mom touring the streets of Portland. So to all of you who will read this — the guy who runs that homeless blog, Street Roots, Real Change, anyone else — I’m sorry in advance!

In any case, I was determined to follow through on my promise to find a vendor selling Street Roots in downtown Portland. Street Roots, if you read my original post based on a story in Relevant Magazine, is a paper produced by and for the homeless in Portland, Oregon. Street people can buy copies of the paper for 25 cents and sell it for a dollar, giving them a legal and quick way to make some money. What a difference having a little bit of money can make!

David and I were meeting our family in the Border’s Coffee shop when we stumbled across George. He’s the man in the pictures. “One of two black guys selling Street Roots…find me here or at the courthouse” he says. George has a great personality. Honestly, he’s the guy you want to invite to your awkward dinner party because he can keep the conversation going. George has been on the streets six months, but he’s been hanging around the homeless longer than that. He’s always had a heart to lift these guys up. “Be positive. That’s what I tell them,” he tells us. “You can’t get out of this by having a bad attitude. And with a good one, you can do anything. I’m OK.” George keeps some of his spare clothing in the basement of a young couple who befriended him, and he says he’s managing well. He must be, because he has six siblings, all of whom would take him in. He prefers to stay and work with the people he loves. “I’ve got a job in a couple of weeks. I’m going to be renovating an old building, and I’ll be able to hire fifteen homeless guys to work with me, I think.” George hopes to get some of his own writing into Street Roots, and he also pointed out his buddy, a man whose artwork is published in the paper. I left George and found myself hoping to read his name in a byline soon.

Street Roots itself, by the way, was a hoot. I sat in the Borders cafe and read the paper half way through before realizing it was their April Fools edition! I laughed out loud at their description of the city council of Portland’s acquisition of new chairs, and how this large civic project was accomplished. The April Fools edition poked alarming fun at just how foolish we must appear to people struggling to get by, and I appreciated the skill and wit that went into its production.

Yesterday David and I journeyed to Seattle (yes — the mother ship of Starbucks), where I found a similar homeless paper called Real Change. There we spoke to a man trying simply to raise $99 for a bus ticket to Orlando to get home to family. Real Change offered him a way to do that. I like the concept behind these two papers: give people a way to earn a little money with real dignity.

Two days and several conversations with several Pacific Northwest homeless folk, including one young teenager, certainly don’t make much of a difference. But I feel different. Each story changes me inside just a little bit. I’m hoping it means that I won’t be in such a hurry next time I pass by a guy trying hard to make a little money. I’m hoping I’ll remember stories.

Tagged as: Homeless, Oregon, Portland, Real Change, Seattle, Street Roots