NEWSBYISRAEL BAYER

Millions of Americans are homeless and tens of millions more are at-risk.

The Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP), a group of grassroots homeless organizations based in California and Oregon, this week released an updated version of a popular report that attempts to explain why. WRAP says, "the 2010 update focuses public attention back on the #1 reason for this housing mess: the federal government's divestment in affordable housing programs and deregulation of the housing market." Full disclosure: I'm on the board of the Western Regional Advocacy Project.

The in-depth report, "Without Housing: Decades of Federal Housing Cutbacks, Massive Homelessness and Policy Failures," was first released in 2006, and has since become a go-to resource for politicians, scholars, think-tanks, poverty organizations and the general public [editor's note: and bloggers!] to track the rise of modern-day homelessness. From the Reagan-era in the 1980s, when the federal government dismantled the social safety net, to the present day, the report outlines the past three decades of policy failures that have led us to this point. This point = not good.

The new report also gives an abridged history of homelessness dating back to the 1929 stock market crash when more than one million people found themselves without homes, and details on how the United States effectively responded to the crisis by creating both urban and rural housing programs to systemically change the face of homelessness.

The North American Street Newspaper Association, with the help of the Ethics & Excellence in Journalism Foundation, has launched a new website.

The NASNA, of which I am the chairperson, represents 31 street newspapers that work with more than 1,500 individuals experiencing homelessness and poverty who gain immediate income through the sale of the newspaper every month. We are a growing grassroots media network that believes in creating real change and has a circulation of 300,000. But it's more than that.

Pledge your support for the street newspaper movement!

Street newspapers play a vital role in stabilizing urban street corners through building self-confidence and self-worth among a population that lives without shelter. Alone, each street newspaper acts in a vacuum. Together, we make up a movement to change the way people relate and respond to homelessness and poverty locally, regionally and globally.

Relationships across class and cultural lines are built through the simple interaction of purchasing a newspaper. The general public begins to know the individual on the corner, not as a bum or a drug addict, but as Joe or Jane, and recognizes that individuals on the streets are no different than themselves. The individual on the streets recognizes that being homeless doesn't mean becoming a victim and instead finds that he or she belongs to a community. That person's hopes, dreams and opinions matter. Magic is born.

Check out the "Get to know our vendors" section of the site to see firsthand how street papers are changing lives. Then find out if there's a street paper in your city. (If not, you can always start one!)

Photo credit: Leah Nash

Yesterday marked a coming together of housing advocates up and down the West Coast as grassroots organizations converged on San Francisco to ask the federal government to adequately fund affordable housing and ensure that city governments around the U.S. uphold the basic civil rights of individuals on the streets.

Estimates of attendance ranged from several hundred to a thousand. More important than their number is what united the marchers -- the vast majority are living on the streets. Organizations from Los Angeles, Fresno, Sacramento, Berkley, San Francisco and Portland, Oregon brought activists to the "House Keys Not Handcuffs" protest organized by the Western Regional Advocacy Project.

The group marched through the financial district and the mission district to the federal building, where a delegation met with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's office to talk about strategies to increase affordable housing efforts and ensure individuals civil rights on the streets. A movement is being built.

Check out photos from the spirited J20 action. Join us in solidarity this month by signing the petition. Right now, we're at more than 300. Let's make that 3,000.

Photo credit: Israel Bayer

Contributor Israel Bayer is reporting all week about the homeless advocacy protest in San Francisco on January 20. Bayer is the director of Street Roots, a street newspaper in Portland, and a member of the board of the Western Regional Advocacy Project.

What makes the action in San Francisco on January 20 special is the fact that it's not about whether thousands of people show up, but that many folks will be traveling to the city by the bay from cities like Sacramento, Fresno, Los Angeles, San Jose and Portland, to experience their first road trip in years -- all with the common bond of either sleeping without shelter in their respective cities or having experienced homelessness before in their lives.

Participant David Mitchell says he hasn't been on a road trip since 1992. "I've been waking up in the middle of the night lately, and saying to myself, 'I am going to San Francisco.' It's amazing. I'm so excited!"

There are many reasons why people are traveling to press elected officials for adequate funding for local communities to tackle homelessness -- none more important than the cause of newly-formed Right 2 Survive, a group of homeless and formerly homeless women who are working to educate other women on the dangers of living on the streets.

In Portland, there have been a rash of attacks against homeless women that have been under-reported in the mainstream media. Both Street Roots and the Willamette Week have picked up bits and pieces in the past year, but attacks against women have continued at an alarming rate.

Right 2 Survive members, who will also be joining WRAP in San Francisco, have taken matters into their own hands by starting foot patrols and handing out whistles to women on the streets.

Julie McCurdy, a homeless woman and member of the group, writes a powerful regular column for Street Roots. In her first, she wrote about the horrors of becoming homeless. In her most recent, nine months later, she tells of a group of women standing together against violence on the streets.

In many ways, McCurdy's stories and the unfortunate need for Right 2 Survive encapsulate why we are going to San Francisco. It is the responsibility of the federal government to adequately fund housing, jobs, treatment and education in local communities and to ensure that local city governments uphold individual civil rights.

Homeless ends with a home. It's just that simple.

If you haven't taken the time to sign the petition, please do so today. It matters.

Over the next week, Street Roots, the Portland, Oregon grassroots newspaper of which I am the director, and Change.org will be highlighting the adventures of community organizations from up and down the West Coast as we prepare to come together in San Francisco on January 20 with one message: housing equals opportunity.

Community groups organized by the Western Regional Advocacy Project (where I am a board member) all along the I-5 corridor from Los Angeles to Portland will be converging in downtown San Francisco on January 20th -- one year to the day that Americans were promised change by President Barack Obama during his inauguration. Our demands are complex, but the ask is simple: adequately fund local communities to put an end to the crisis we call homelessness.

Sign the petition showing your support for a people's bailout.

For more than three decades, rural communities and cities across America have struggled to solve the problem of modern day homelessness. During this time thousands of individuals experiencing homelessness have died on our streets, while many more have been criminalized, often for their very existence, and endured cruel and unusual punishment through humiliation, discrimination, violence, imprisonment and unsafe living conditions. With the recent downturn in the economy, these realities are only compounded on America's streets. It's time for change.

Here are some of those voices from the Los Angeles Community Action Network that will be attending the demonstration to demand change. Will you join us? If you can't, please pledge your support with this petition.

Tye Doudy is the most hard hitting columnist I have ever read from the streets. Doudy writes the powerful and gripping column titled Addict's Almanac in Street Roots about life on the streets as a heroine addict. His columns have been picked up in other street papers in both the U.S. and in Europe, and stirred much debate at a grassroots level. (Publishers: Tye is waiting for your call!) 

His first of a six-part series began in August of 2008 and ran through the fall of that year. The column has fostered many emotions locally, both good and bad. In July, Doudy picked the column back up and tackles the issues of domestic violence and addiction. 

Portland is a heroine town, always has been. Doudy's column offers us an insight to a world that no journalist or Nightline special will ever be able to capture. The column is both in your face and humble, disturbing, yet masterfully woven. He is a real life Drugstore Cowboy. 

Later this week, representatives from 22 street newspapers from the U.S. and Canada will be gathering in Denver, Colorado for the North American Street Newspaper Association (NASNA) conference.  The conference is being held at the University of Denver and hosted by the Denver Voice.  

Born in 2007, the Denver Voice is a 20-page hard-hitting and clean monthly publication being led by veteran journalists and vendors. 

The latest issue highlights an in-depth look at a three-year battle between Denver cab companies resulting in the first new cab company in the city in 15 years. In my humble opinion, the paper's reporting has been both hungry and smart. Denverites looking for real local news have to be happy with the papers presence. 

Not to mention the fact that with the vendor program, Denver is experiencing a new look at homelessness. Relationships are being built and new conversations are taking place between the general public and homeless folks. The public must now look at homelessness with a more personal relationship attached to it. Most importantly, folks on the skids have the opportunity to gain an alternative income that will improve individuals and families quality of life. Change is in the air on the homeless front in the Mile High City.

The conference itself will bring together newspaper people, vendors who sell the newspapers, authors, historians, social service workers, and community organizers that work with street papers. They are made of both rookie and veteran editors, green and seasoned journalists, do-gooders, people experiencing homelessness, business folks, fundraisers, and people who believe in the idea of connecting media and the larger community with the streets. 

All of the papers, large or small, are navigating through an unforgiving recession that has dumped thousands upon thousands of new faces on the streets. Not to mention that layoffs and budget shortfalls mean foundations, businesses and individuals are giving less. 

All of this comes at a time when media itself is being reinvented. Daily papers are shrinking and weekly papers are nervous. Who delivers the news is changing.  Street papers are filling a niche by covering issues on the fringes concerning poverty, immigration and homelessness itself. 

Does that mean as a newspaper model that street newspapers are any better position financially? Unfortunately, no. 

Street newspapers are looking at ways to survive just like the rest of the print media world. The only difference is that many street newspapers, unlike much of the print media elite, have been in survival mode for most of their existence. Having a shotgun newsroom and a humble community space for vendors along with dedicated group of volunteers and money to print is all a street newspaper needs to survive.

For many street newspapers hope in the air. While some of the papers attending haven't gotten through their first 12 months, other papers find themselves evolving, on the verge of going from the small train that could to a sustainable non-profit creating systematic change in the community. We are family, and this weeks conference is our reunion. We will do our best to help one another along. 

The Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP) was born in 2005 as a regional collaboration of seven social justice organizations in six West Coast cities.

In 2007, the organization published Without Housing: Decades of Housing Cutbacks, Massive Homelessness and Policy Failures.

For anyone interested in reviewing the rise of modern day homelessness, it's a must read. The organization is currently working on putting together an updated second release of the report. To date, 25,000 copies of the report of have been downloaded.

WRAP is also working on its second campaign, Without Rights. The campaign is working to support legal defense programs for people experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles and San Francisco while duplicating these models in other communities along the West Coast, including Portland.

The campaign is also publishing a report outlining effective public education and advocacy efforts to challenge the use of "quality of life" policing programs and separate courts to criminalize and remove poor people from public spaces.

Part of the goal of WRAP is to incorporate quality art into its organizing. How could you not? Art can be every bit as powerful as investigative reporting, photography and testimonials being highlighted about homelessness and poverty in America.

Currently, WRAP is partnering with the California Exhibition Resource Alliance and California Historical Society to present, Hobos to Street People: Artists Response to Homelessness from the New Deal to the Present. The show is currently being shown in San Francisco, but will be touring the state of California until December of 2011.

Here's the description of the show.

Vagrants, transients, hobos, tramps, and street people-whatever names we have used to describe their particular circumstances, homeless people have been a part of American society throughout the nation's history.

In the Great Depression of the 1930s many artists for the first time in US history began to address issues of human rights. The large number of poor, displaced and homeless people was one important focus. Artists were not only observers, but they actively found ways to influence society through exhibition and distribution of their work.

During the decades following World War II artists shifted their energies elsewhere, but by the late 1970s with the rise of the modern era of mass homelessness many artists again began to focus on what was happening to poor people in our society. Structural changes in the American economy and a return to fiscally conservative ideology began a period of increased poverty and economic inequality.

Over the following decades, the problems contributing to homelessness increased. By 2008, an estimated 3.5 million Americans lived without housing and homeless children in school exceeded 900,000 according to the US Department of Education.

The exhibition presents the work of artists who have sought to bring attention to the tragedy of homelessness.

If you're in San Francisco this summer, it's a must see.

(Artwork by Claude Moller)

What is a street newspaper?

It's simple. Street newspapers are independent newspapers and magazines that provide a unique work model for people experiencing homelessness and poverty. Vendors buy the newspaper for a portion of the cover price, and then sell the newspaper to the broader community, keeping the proceeds.

There are currently 101 streets newspapers in cities in 37 counties around the world.

Street newspapers tend to thrive in cities that have a high volume of walking and/or bike traffic, and an adequate public transportation system. All of these elements allow for vendors selling the newspaper to be mobile and more important, it allows them to engage with other people living and working in the community.

Each newspaper exists locally in any number of political and cultural environments, often times working with a small team of dedicated staff and volunteers, to produce a newspaper or magazine with individuals experiencing homelessness and poverty.

For years, street newspapers existed in a vacuum and more or less were left to their own devices. That's changing. It's a movement that is one the verge of coming into its own.

At Street Roots in Portland, Oregon, we have around 80 vendors selling the newspaper throughout the city. Vendors typically sell the newspaper at busy intersections downtown and at lively neighborhood grocery stores, libraries, coffee shops, and other locations that attract walking traffic. People experiencing homeless and poverty are able to make money to survive and build self-confidence through the relationships built with customers. We also work with and highlight the voices of the streets through poetry, opinion pieces and artwork. It's about making human connections.

We are a modest and hard working publication that works on a fairly small budget. We believe in using quality journalism and community voices, including folks on the streets, to dig down deep to the heart of issues.

We are not alone. Street Roots belongs to both the North American Street Newspaper Association and the International Network of Street Papers, both of which produce the Street News Service (SNS).

The Street News Service is an online news agency that brings together the best of the street paper journalism from around the world. Each street newspaper has the ability to share news and community voices, giving newspapers the ability to share real life stories and poverty news happening around the world.

Alone, we are only one voice in one community. Together we are able to cover regional, national or global politics, including policies effecting homelessness, immigration, and gentrification, to name a few.

Megaphone in Vancouver B.C. has been producing award winning journalism. Real Change in Seattle, the same.

Both Seattle and Vancouver share many of the same values and cultural traits as Portland. People are interested. It gives Portlanders insight to our sister cities that you're not going to find in other print media in Portland.  It's a win-win.

The reporting ultimately leads to educating readers about a variety of topics, and gives people an opportunity to take action.

For example, the Managing Editor of Street Roots, Joanne Zuhl, has been locked into an investigative piece over the past month about 300 families in NW Oregon that are losing their housing. The story has morphed into a grassroots advocacy effort led by dozens of organizations around the country to save the families from homelessness.

In U.S. and Canada, these regional and global partnerships are not isolated to the Pacific Northwest. Street newspapers in cities throughout the world are using a network to build relationships by sharing best practices, technology, fundraising and vendor tips, content and connecting with each other via the web.

My goal for this column will be to bring Change.org readers closer to the street newspaper movement by highlighting news and vendor voices that are having a social and political impact in communities around the world.  I hope you will join me.