Helping Them Help Themselves

By LESLIE WHITAKER

For three months after he lost his job at a restaurant and his bed at a New York City shelter, Johnny Williams slept and panhandled on the subways. Landing a new job is all but impossible, he explains, without "your proper rest, a way to get clean and a place to store your clothes." But two months ago, Williams, 32, found an occupation that doesn't require any of the above: selling Street News, the new "motivational" monthly designed to help the homeless help themselves.

"We'll take practically anybody," says Street News founder and editor in chief Hutchinson Persons, 33. Persons, a former rock musician, created the tabloid-size publication with borrowed money and donations so that homeless people could make money selling it instead of begging. Since Street News debuted four months ago, says Persons, nearly 1,000 homeless and near homeless men and women have sold more than 1 million copies in New York City. Beginning next month the paper will also be available in Philadelphia, the first of five additional cities where it is targeted for distribution by year's end.

Street News is published on a nonprofit basis. Persons, who employs a staff of 19, began paying himself a modest annual salary of $35,000 in January. As for his salespeople, their earnings depend on the number of papers they can hawk. They buy copies for approximately 25 cents apiece, sell them for 75 cents and keep the difference. In addition, every paper sold earns the vendor an extra nickel that is deposited in a special savings account set aside for rent. So far, says Persons, 200 of the salespeople have saved enough money to secure cheap rooms or apartments.

Most buyers purchase Street News because they feel more comfortable giving money to a homeless person offering a product than to someone who simply wants a handout. Those who actually read the paper are unlikely to be bowled over by its literary merits. The bulk of the text consists of breezy, opinionated pieces signed by a motley assortment of celebrities and business executives. The most interesting items are the prose and poems penned by homeless contributors.

The publication has received enthusiastic support from corporate donors, including Chubb Realty and Citibank, who have bolstered the paper with a steady stream of advertising (at $3,500 a page). In addition, the New York Times provided free circulation advice as well as caps and aprons printed with the Street News logo.

Some professionals who work with the homeless have been critical of the operation, insisting that street people need a host of services and not just temporary work opportunities. "It may help some people make a little bit of money, but it will not help anyone get up and out of poverty," says Kristin Morse, assistant director of the Coalition for the Homeless.

Others are raising concerns about the way Street Aid, the parent organization that publishes Street News, is being run. The Better Business Bureau's New York Philanthropic Advisory Service, which registers charity organizations, has so far declined to give the organization its stamp of approval. Reasons: insufficient financial information, questions regarding the low percentage of income that had been used for charitable programs and the lack of an independent governing body.

Persons insists that he has recently sent materials to NYPAS that will satisfy all its reporting and organizational requirements. Says he: "I'm doing something morally and ethically right." The dozens of men and women who have got off the street by selling his paper would certainly agree.