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Newspaper's roots firmly planted in the homeless cause

Street Roots enables the homeless to earn money and voice their opinions

Get a job! That's the easiest thing to say to a homeless person on the street. But telling a homeless person to get a job is often just an easy way of not caring. For a homeless person, getting a job can be a difficult task. Even minimum wage jobs require an address, Social Security number and other personal information. Often, homeless people do not have this crucial data. A homeless person may be highly skilled and fully qualified for many jobs, but without a home address, getting past the application process is almost impossible.

One organization is doing what it can to help homeless people get back on their feet. Street Roots is a newspaper designed to help homeless people. Volunteer workers staff the paper, and the newspaper hires homeless people to sell the newspaper on the streets. Because Street Roots is a non-profit organization, the vendors get to keep 75 cents from every $1 newspaper they sell. The other 25 cents helps to pay for production costs.

Street Roots was spawned from another newspaper called the Burnside Cadillac. That's where Bryan Pollard, now the managing editor of Street Roots, first started working as a photographer. Mr. Pollard started working with the Burnside Cadillac in the spring of '98, and in the fall of '98, he became managing editor of Street Roots. "It was a situation where I was in the right place at the right time. I had the abilities that were required to do the job; I had the desire to do the job," Mr. Pollard said.

Frank Mitchell, now the submissions editor for Street Roots, also started out writing for the Burnside Cadillac. He enjoyed submitting poems to the Burnside Cadillac and when that paper ended, he quickly moved on to working for Street Roots. Mr. Mitchell is not homeless, but he has a very low annual income. Mr. Mitchell enjoyed the artwork and poetry in Street Roots so much that he created a whole new position for himself: submissions editor. Mr. Mitchell edits all the poetry and artwork sent to Street Roots.

According to Mr. Pollard, Street Roots is a newspaper for the people. All the news stories in Street Roots touch on issues concerning the homeless, and the paper also collects art work and poetry from homeless people. Street Roots allows those who might not otherwise have a voice in society a chance to speak their minds. "Street Roots gives a voice to the voiceless," Mr. Mitchell said.

Street Roots provides income for those living on the streets. The newspaper offers a job to anyone on the streets who has an interest in selling newspapers. For those with no home address, Street Roots only requires that they give their first and last name. "Literally anyone can walk in off the streets, go through our orientation and start making money today," Mr. Pollard said. He reports that many people who work selling newspapers for Street Roots have gotten off the streets.

For Mr. Mitchell, the newspaper gives back a lot for the time he puts in. "I'm living with a mental illness and it causes problems with clinical depression. Street Roots is just as beneficial to me as seeing a therapist. It's quite therapeutic because I feel motivated," Mr. Mitchell said.

Streets Roots contains a variety of information, including news stories and a complete listing of shelters and hotlines. Vendors sell papers all over Portland, including downtown, Southeast, North Portland and sometimes Vancouver.

Other than photography, Mr. Pollard started at the newspaper with no previous journalism experience. His interest is primarily social injustice. Mr. Pollard's degree in anthropology allowed him to see injustices of all sorts. "When I was taking pictures for the Burnside Cadillac, I was searching for a niche where I felt like I could make a difference," he said.

For Mr. Pollard, the most exciting thing about Street Roots is seeing the difference the paper can make. "It's rewarding every time someone calls and says, 'Oh, I read that story, and I just thought it was great. It has caused me to change the way I see people. It's made me call my state representative. It has influenced me to do something differently than the way I would have done it before.' "That's what makes me feel good about it [Street Roots]--to know that we're not just paying lip service to the cause of poverty and homelessness. We're actually making a difference. It may not be a huge difference. We're not going to revolutionize the globalization of poverty, but every time you flip a switch in someone's mind, that's another straw on the camel's back," Mr. Pollard said.

Street Roots has about 15 volunteer staff and anywhere from 15-50 vendors selling newspapers. When Street Roots started in December of 1998, the circulation was about 2,000. Now, less than a year later, the paper's circulation is about 8,000.

However, Street Roots has experienced difficulties along with the victories. According to Mr. Pollard, encountering carelessness and indifference to the plight of society is difficult to deal with. "To me, it's painfully obvious the course that our society is on. Our children and grandchildren are going to inherit a complete social and environmental disaster, and yet people don't care. They can't see past their selfishness and their greed to change the way they are and make the world a better place. That's very hard for me to stomach," he said.

Street Roots receives almost no funding from major corporations. The paper has chosen to remain free of the "influence of a larger entity," Mr. Pollard said. "This place is a rat hole. We've done the most we can, but it's obvious that we exist month to month. The paper pretty closely parallels the life of a poor person."

Mr. Mitchell also recognizes the modest condition of Street Roots but doesn't seem to mind too much. "Be it ever so humble, there's no place like Street Roots," Mr. Mitchell said.