Local people facing homelessness soon will be able to earn money by selling a news magazine with content about challenges they face and various social justice issues.
Founder Paul Gangarosa put up his own money and time to create The Lowcountry Herald, a monthly news magazine whose first 16-page issue should be published this week.
“I saw through the Great Recession how easy it is for anyone to become homeless,” says Gangarosa, an adjunct professor at the College of Charleston who teaches public health. He also saw the concept of so-called street newspapers.
It is good that homeless people have a way to do something for money. But if Nashville, TN’s results are typical, know that not all of the people who will sell this paper are homeless or will use the money for true needs. There are two “homeless” papers here, the Contributor and a newer, Christian-themed paper, Faith & Unity Values. I have overheard on several occasions, while riding public transit, Contributor dealers talk about how they were not actually homeless, and I know personally one dealer who is not homeless and spends much of her earnings on cigarettes, alcohol and supporting a lifetime (since age 14) drug habit. Ancedotal accounts abound of drivers seeing these paper dealers ride a bicycle to their alloted location, change from good-looking new or gently-used clothes into dirty, ragged clothes, and change back at the end of their “shift”. Last week the bus I was riding home pulled over between stops to pick up a would-be rider who was running after the bus and shouting for it to stop. It turned out that this Faith & Unity Values dealer had just come out of a liquor store and had a bag with the store logo and a few bottles of whatever he had purchased there. He rather proudly told the other riders that he didn’t want to miss that bus after having gone to the liquor store. These “homeless” papers are a well-meaning idea that do benefit many genuine homeless in helping them meet real needs in a dignified, honest way. But not a few people abuse this opportunity, just as government assistance is often abused.