North America: StreetWise (Chicago, USA)

The National Coalition for the Homeless Web site estimates that 3.5 million people experience homelessness at some point during each year in the U.S. In Chicago, the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless did a late 2006 study, which said 21,078 people were homeless on a typical night in Chicago. Of those, 4,654 were served in shelters and 16,424 did not access shelters.

The U.S. government's definition of chronic homelessness is a person who has been homeless for more than a year or who has been homeless four times within three years.

What was the impetus for establishing your street paper?

Our founder saw the street paper in New York and was inspired to start one in Chicago.

What impact has your street paper had?

Since the very first edition, StreetWise was placed into the hands of vendors (over 8,000 to date) the StreetWise program has relied on the motivation of the vendors to create their own successes and thereby that of the entire program. As a result, the paper has grown in circulation (13,000) and frequently (now weekly). Each day, over 225 individuals sell the paper.

What influence has your country's social/ economic/political situation had on your street paper?

I like to say that our readership is affluent enough to be altruistic, which explains why we can cover arts/culture and fundraising gala benefits for non-profit organizations as well as issues of unaffordable housing and unequal access to education.

Simultaneously, many of our readers were activists in the 1960s and '70s, so they still care about peace, the environment and social justice, which gives us a niche that other papers do not fill.

The foreclosure crisis in 2008 and the perception that the economy has turned is making people more attuned to the message that "everybody is just a paycheck away from homelessness." Lately, we have been seeing it to be particularly true for people over 50, whether because they were in low-wage jobs that wore them out physically or because the jobs did not require them to become proficient in computers. One crisis - a divorce, loss or job or illness - can send them into homelessness.

What direction do you see your street paper taking over the next five years?

More input from vendors and new writers. We give vendors a chance to be independent entrepreneurs, so we can do the same for voices in our community, which reinforces the idea that everybody just needs "a hand up, not a hand out."