Street roots., February 10, 2017, Page 7, Image 7

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Vendors
Page 7
From Portland to Montreal; a vendor-to-vendor chat
This week, street papers around the world
celebrate Vendor Week, Recently John
Brown, a Street Roots vendor, had the
opportunity to interview a vendor in
another country. Here is his conversation
with James, a vendor at L ’Itinéraire, a
street magazine in Montréal, Canada.
the morning.
John: In Portland, we don’t have enough
places with temporary beds. The places where
you can go and spend the night are not very
good, but in the middle of winter, it’s better
than sleeping in the doorway of a store. We
have Social Security, a few social programs
and subsidized housing. I know a lot of people
who live in them for very reasonable prices.
B ut there is more demand than there is
availability. You can certainly be on a waiting
list for years.
l" âmes: L’Itinéraire is a magazine that is
I published twice a month. It helps the
a
I vèndors and the homeless to reintegrate
to society. It also serves to educate and
create awareness about homelessness
among Montreal’s population, as well as
other realities in the world. Other topics are
covered such as social and cultural issues.
Vendors buy the magazine $1.50 and sell it
on the street for $3.
Fifity percent of our publication is written
by the vendors. As for me, this is the first
time that I have conducted an interview. I
have been a vendor for about 10 years now,
but I never really got involved with the
magazine. I am glad to get involved and be
able to talk with vendors, not only from
Montréal, but from elsewhere in the world.
John: Street Roots is a 16-page newspaper,
including news, ads, artistic items such as
Poems. Our editorial line is pretty progressive.
But some of our vendors dont always agree
with it. We have a super team in our
newsroom.
Two years ago, we decided to m ake Street
Jam es: I heard about Dignity Village in
Portland. Is it a place where you can build a
shack?
STREET ROOTS PHOTO
Street Roots vendor John Brown (right) Skypes with James, a vendor in Montréal, Canada.
really well! We also have a guide that informs
people about organizations that help people.
Where you can go to eat, where you can find
shelter. It has a lot of success. We buy the
paper for 25 cents and sell it for a dollar, so we
make 75 cents per transaction. I sell about 150
to 200 papers a week, and thank goodness. I ’m
able to rent a house from what I earn. Tam
very grateful.
J a m e s : W h a t i s i t l i k e to b e h o m e l e s s in
Portland ?
John: Usually, the weather isn’t too bad. It’s
not that cold, but it does rain from October to
June. There are a lot of homeless people in
Portland, and I am pleased to no longer be one
of them.
James: I traveled to Vancouver and there’s,
a lot of rain there. But it’s not as cold as it is
h ere, b u t it is difficult to m anage living oil
t h e s t r e e t . I am c u r r e n t l y h o m e le s s ,: an d i t ’s •
h a r d . L u c k i l y , I ’v e g o t t w o e x c e l l e n t s l e e p i n g
John: It’s like a tent community. B ut I
compare it to the favelas in Brazil. I don’t
know how many generations of poor people live
there. Dignity Village has been around for 15
or 20 years.
Jam es: Here, I don’t know of any such
place. There are rooms, though, where you
pSy between $400 and $500 a month.
However, we have welfare. That’s about
$600 a month. That helps to pay for a room.
Joh n : A re there good social services available
in C a n a d a ? -
J a m e s : Y e s, s o c ia l s e r v i c e s a r e g o o d h e r e ,
b u .t s o m e t i m e s g e t t i n g t h e m t a k e s a w h i l e . I
bags, and once I get inside, it’s fine. The
w o rst p a r t is having to g e t o u t of th e m in
See VEN D O R CHAT, p ag e 14
Roots a weekly paper. It's been great for sales.
A new paper every Friday and that works
New street paper hits the press in Colorado Springs
convinced than ever that the homeless
community needed a voice.
C O N T R IB U T IN G W R ITE R
“The idea came from being hungry - the
y | ^ w o years ago, Raven Canon was
desire came from wanting to fight,” she S
newly homeless in Colorado Springs,
explained. “I’m forced to step up into this
a city on the eastern edge of the
role that I’ve created. It’s bizarre, because
southern Rocky Mountains. She was sitting
until I did this we (the homeless
outside the city’s Penrose library, and she'
community) had no voice here, none. The
was hungry.
city council, the CSPD (Colorado Springs
“I’m female, so I was just trying to keep a
Police Department), the mayor - they
low profile,” she recalled. “People target
walked all over us, I just got tired of it. I
you, especially if you’re female and
started stomping my feet”
homeless.”
>
So for the past year and a half, with
Raven’s caution was well-founded, but
support from fellow members of the street
meant she was unaware that help was close
paper community, including Real Change,
at hand. “I didn’t know the soup kitchen was the Denver Voice and Nashville paper The
a block and a half away - and I was
Contributor, Raven has been working to
starving,” she said. “When I found out, I was make The Springs Echo a reality. She
just appalled that I could sit a block and a
secured backing from local activist group
half away and not know that was there.”
Coalition for Compassion and Action (CCA)
This moment of need, and the desire to
- for whom Raven was their first homeless
stop anyone else from facing the same
member - and from the NAACP. Like the
situation, was the spur for Raven to launch
founders of many fledgling papers before
Colorado Springs’ first street paper. As a
her, she also pulled in favors from friends
former vendor for Real Change, she recalled
and fellow activists.
mow the Seattle street paper had printed a
The first edition of the paper was printed
calendar to inform homeless people of the
at the start of 2017. Three thousand copies
BY LAURA KELLY
X
services available to them.
“For me, putting the calendar on the very
back page of the paper - that was the
catalyst that started it all,” she said.
Shortly afterward, the City Council
passed a no-sit, no-lie ordinance (which
prohibits sitting or lying on the sidewalk or
4 other public spaces) and Raven was-more
were delivered to the very soup kitchen that
had been so tantalizingly out of reach for
Raven just a couple of years earlier. In the
last couple of weeks, 10 vendors have been
through the orientation process. They buy
the paper f o r ^ c e n te and sell j t for
recommended donation of $1.50.
herculean task but Raven’s story is all the
more remarkable because she achieved it
while facing her own struggles with
homelessness. Without permanent shelter,
she juggles fundraising and editing duties
while staying at friends’ houses or sleeping
in a local 24-hour café.
“It’s a frattle,” she admited.. “At times, it’s
more than I can bear. I can’t go into a
regular shelter setting, where I normally
used to go, because I pretty much go around
with a big bullseye on my back in the
homeless community right now. I m
bringing unwanted attention on them. They
don’t understand that things are getting
better because I’m doing this. They’re so
used to people abusing them and throwing
them under the bus, that is whát they
naturally expect Until more members of the
homeless community start to stand up with
me, my voice has to be the loudest Because
right now, there’s no balance to the
On the first day The Springs Echo hit the
conversation.”
Activism is at the heart of Raven’s
streets, Raven heard that a high-ranking
ambitions for the paper - but given her
member of the mayor’s office had bought a
copy. “So I’d say the chances are pretty high continuing struggle with housing, the
financial imperative that drives street papers
that the mayor’s read i t And for me that’s
is never far from her mind. “For me, this is
just such a personal accomplishment The
all about the vendors,” she said. “If the
fact that the very first edition out, the very
vendors aren’t out there making money,
first day that I launched, someone from the
what’s the point? We need a voice, but at
mayor’s office made a point to buy it, tells
the end of the day this is about getting
me that there is a market for this. This is so
people off the streets.”
workable ^ s h e said. # $ 4
'Courtesy oflN SPN ew s Service/INSP.ngo
’^Afreatmg a new street' paper is always a