by Jennifer Atkin. Reprinted (with permission) from StreetWise Newspaper, Dec. 1-15, 1995
Cyber version provided through OPENAIR-MARKET NET
A group of StreetWise vendors are determined to continue selling this newspaper in Chicago's Northwest suburbs despite obstacles.
"I don't see anyone complaining about homeless people running around in their beautiful suburban neighborhood," said Robert Schuller, 36, the suburban vendors' organizer and StreetWise vendor #2441. "I hear people saying, 'I heard you guys were coming out here. What took you so long?'"
About 30 people, led by a core group of five full-time StreetWise vendors under Schuller's leadership, are selling StreetWise even though the program that originally sponsored them is officially defunct.
"StreetWise has gotten me off the streets and out of [the shelter]," said 35-year-old Vic Ray, vendor #2542, who sells between 20 and 40 newspapers in the Northwest suburbs every day. "I'm currently living in a motel with some of the other guys. We all get a room together. It's nice to have peace of mind."
"I made enough money for me and Rosie to get married," said 36-year-old Michael Keating, vendor #2541, who was married Nov. 26. His wife, Roselynn Zittman (now Keating), vendor #2540, has built up relationships with managers and customers in the grocery stores where she regularly sells the newspaper-many of whom frequently buy her lunch or give her a hat or pair of gloves, Keating said.
In September, StreetWise began a partnership with the Coalition for the Homeless in Northwest Cook County. Residents of the Coalition's shelter program, Public Action to Deliver Shelter , or PADS, Northwest, were given the opportunity to work by selling StreetWise newspapers, beginning with the Sept. 16-31, 1995, issue.
Rather than import StreetWise vendors from the city, the idea behind the partnership was to enable homeless people from the suburbs to work in their own neighborhoods.
Schuller, who was hired as a case manager by PADS Northwest about a year ago and who is formerly homeless himself, headed up the StreetWise Northwest distribution operations.
Methods discussed for selling the newspaper in the suburbs ranged from telemarketing subscription sales to in-store sales to street hawking, as it's done in the city. The program was set up on a trial basis, with two evaluations set for 90 days and 180 days after implementation.
While areas such as subscription and in-store sales had not yet been implemented, some vendors had begun to experience success in sidewalk sales. The core group of five Northwest-based vendors sold 600 copies of the Nov. 16-31 issue in the first week of sales.
Yet on Nov. 13-before the program's first 90-day evaluation-CHNCC/
PADS Northwest told StreetWise that the program would be discontinued, perhaps permanently.
Anthony Oliver, executive director of StreetWise, said his understanding is that PADS Northwest was under pressure from a variety of areas, from funders to local officials, to end the program. At an emergency meeting, PADS Northwest's board of directors voted to discontinue the partnership.
The exact reasoning behind the vote is not clear. At press time, Cheryl Studebaker, executive director of CHNCC/PADS Northwest, had not made a public statement about the vote and could not be reached for comment.
One of the problems leading to the dissolution of the partnership was a number of complaints from suburban residents about the vendors, said Hoffman Estates Mayor Michael O'Malley.
O'Malley is the honorary president of the Coalition's board and, he stresses, a nonvoting member. Although he was not present at the meeting in which the decision to end the partnership was made, he said that he believed residents' complaints were one of the key factors in the board's decision.
O'Malley said his office received "about eight or nine" complaints about StreetWise vendors in Hoffman Estates; he recalled one in particular in which the complainer described a vendor's use of profanity.
Yet no complaints have been filed against StreetWise vendors in their communities during the month of November, said Lieutenant Earl Maurer of the Hoffman Estates Police Department, Sergeant Alan Stoeckel of the Palatine Police Department and Commander John Fellmann of the Arlington Heights Police Department.
Police in Palatine and Hoffman Estates said they were not aware of any problems with StreetWise vendors whatsoever. Arlington Heights police cited one vendor a couple of months ago with not having a solicitor's license; StreetWise vendors have avoided that suburb ever since.
O'Malley said that though it is unfortunate that the StreetWise program through PADS Northwest did not work, "It's not the end of the world." He said that he believed the solution to end homelessness was through the creation of jobs, so that all those who wanted to work could work.
"Out here, people drive more than they walk," O'Malley said. "In my opinion, [StreetWise vendors] are wasting their time out here."
"People need a place where they can work 9-to-5," O'Malley said.
O'Malley said that he was surprised to learn that suburban StreetWise vendors were selling out on the streets at all-the agreement, he said, was that the newspaper would be sold in the suburbs through subscriptions and through in-store sales.
But not everyone agreed that suburban vendors should not be selling the newspaper directly to people, like the Chicago vendors do.
"I like the idea that [vendors] are out there mingling with society, that they're not isolated in a subculture of their own," Schuller said.
"In every community, the people, the residents, are great," Schuller added. "It's not even the police-it's the damn politicians who are trying to shut us down."
Unlike city vendors who work the same "spot" every day, the suburban vendors have had to keep moving. Team leaders with cars check up on other vendors, Schuller explained, moving them out of an area if it seemed like trouble might be brewing.
"One store manager said, 'I don't mind you here, but the police don't want you here so you'll have to leave,' " Keating said.
That a small band of vendors would continuing to sell the newspaper together is, in some ways, not surprising. In an Aug. 30, 1995, interview with StreetWise, Studebaker had noted that Northwest vendors would work in teams and she stressed the importance of teamwork in making the program work.
"They will fail together or succeed together," Studebaker said at the time. "I expect them to succeed."
It is still uncertain what course of action StreetWise will take in regards to the vendors in the Northwest suburbs. But Oliver said that, "StreetWise will continue its mission of empowering the homeless through employment. Where there are homeless people, we will continue to support them and we will encourage them to work toward self-sufficiency.
But for those still hawking the newspaper in the Northwest suburbs, it all boils down to whether they have an opportunity to earn their way out of homelessness or not.
For newlyweds Mike and Rosie Keating, who hope to have enough money to start renting an apartment before the end of the year, StreetWise makes a world of difference.
"The main thing StreetWise has done for me is put money in my pocket and help build up my self-esteem," Keating said. "Living on the streets, you start to feel that you're nobody and that you're going nowhere. Now I live in a hotel where I can shower and shave, and I have enough money that I can keep looking for work."
That money also helps buy the simple pleasures in life.
"Yesterday, I had enough money to go out to Pizza Hut and buy a pizza," Keating said. "That's a nice feeling."
Reprinted with permission from the Dec. 1-15 issue of StreetWise _ 1995.