The Homeless Grapevine was a street newspaper sold by homeless in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was published by the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless (NEOCH) from 1992 to 2009. Vendors bought the paper for 25 cents per copy and sell them for 1 dollar. The papers attempted to be a voice for the homeless and content was entirely dedicated to homeless issues, much of it written by current or former homeless. [1] It was a monthly magazine of 16 pages and as of 2004 had a circulation of 5,000 copies sold by 15–20 vendors. [2] [3] Sellers were often at The West Side Market, Public Square, E. 9th St., East 12th and Coventry. [1]
It was started in 1991 by Kent State University student Fred Maier and was originally photocopied and sold for 25 cents. In 1993 it was taken over NEOCH and its former director Bryan Gillooly, who published the first issue of the new Homeless Grapevine that spring. [2] [3] [4]
The special issue 65(a) in May–June 2004 was entirely dedicated to Daniel Thompson, the poet laureate of Cuyahoga County, who was also a homeless advocate and had often written for the paper. [3]
The Homeless Grapevine was listed as a "notable entry" in the 2006 Knight-Batten Awards with the comment "A pat on the back for job well done". [5] The paper won the Greater Cleveland Community Shares Social Justice Reporting Award in 2005. [6]
The Homeless Grapevine was discontinued in 2009. The following year, NEOCH launched its replacement, The Cleveland Street Chronicle. [7]
In the mid-1990s, the city required that Grapevine sellers have a peddlers' license, costing 50 dollars. After one vendor was ticketed, the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio argued that it was a violation of the First Amendment and the charges were dropped. A lawsuit [8] was also filed on behalf of homeless vendors and the Nation of Islam that was selling their newspaper The Final Call in public. A district court ruled with the vendors, but the Sixth Circuit Appeals Court reversed it, siding with the city. [2] [9] [10] [11]
According to ACLU representatives, the Grapevine's coverage also played a major role in resolving another ACLU lawsuit, [12] which had been brought against the city for transporting homeless to isolated areas. [13]
Real Change is a weekly progressive street newspaper based in Seattle, Washington, USA written by professional staff and sold by self-employed vendors, many of whom are homeless. The paper provides them with an alternative to panhandling and covers a variety of social justice issues, including homelessness and poverty. It became weekly in 2005, making it the second American street newspaper ever to be published weekly. Real Change is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with an annual budget of $950,000.
Street newspapers are newspapers or magazines sold by homeless or poor individuals and produced mainly to support these populations. Most such newspapers primarily provide coverage about homelessness and poverty-related issues, and seek to strengthen social networks within homeless communities. Street papers aim to give these individuals both employment opportunities and a voice in their community. In addition to being sold by homeless individuals, many of these papers are partially produced and written by them.
Spare Change News (SCN) is a street newspaper founded in 1992 in Boston, Massachusetts for the Greater Boston Area and published out of the editorial offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts through the efforts of the Homeless Empowerment Project (HEP), a grassroots organization created to help end homelessness.
Frank George Jackson is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 57th Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio from 2006 to 2022. He was first elected on November 8, 2005, unseating incumbent Jane Campbell, and re-elected in 2009, 2013, and 2017. Having served four full terms, he is the longest-serving mayor in Cleveland history. On May 6, 2021, he announced he would not seek re-election in 2021.
The Street Sheet is a street newspaper published and sold in San Francisco, California which focuses on the problems of homeless people in the city, and on issues of poverty and housing. Founded in 1989, the Street Sheet is second only to the Street News as the oldest extant street newspaper in the United States and currently has the largest circulation of a street newspaper with 32,000 papers distributed monthly.
Jennifer Lee Brunner is an American attorney, politician and judge. She is currently an associate justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, a position to which she was elected after serving as a judge on the Ohio Tenth District Court of Appeals. A member of the Democratic Party, Brunner also served one term as Ohio Secretary of State from 2007 to 2011 and unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. Senate in 2010. Prior to being elected Secretary of State, Brunner worked in the Ohio Secretary of State's Office and served as a County Judge in Franklin County, Ohio.
Street Sense is a weekly street newspaper sold by self-employed homeless distributors ("vendors") on the streets of Washington, D.C., the capital city of the United States. It is published by the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Street Sense Media, which also produces documentary filmmaking, photography, theatre, illustration and poetry. The organization says this media, most of which is created by homeless and formerly homeless people, is designed to break down stereotypes and educate the community.
Street Roots is a Portland, Oregon, United States–based homeless advocacy group and a weekly alternative newspaper that covers homeless issues. The newsprint is sold by and for the homeless in Portland. The paper is published every week and sold through vendors who are currently or formerly homeless. The paper's editorial position is homeless advocacy. Vendors purchase the paper for 25 cents and sell them for $1 and keep the difference of 75 cents. The paper features alternative news, interviews, and poetry written by local journalists as well as the homeless and those who work with them.
Discrimination against homeless people is categorized as the act of treating people who lack housing in a prejudiced or negative manner due to the fact that they are homeless. Other factors can compound discrimination against homeless people including discrimination on the basis of race, gender, sexuality, age, mental illness, and other considerations.
Change of Heart is a quarterly street newspaper produced and sold in Lawrence, Kansas. It was founded by Craig Sweets in late 1996. who says the idea of starting a street newspaper was given to him by Michael Stoops, the director of the National Coalition for the Homeless. The paper is a member of the North American Street Newspaper Association (NASNA), and is the only street newspaper in Kansas.
Street News was a street newspaper sold by homeless people in New York City. Established in 1989, it was founded and launched by Hutchinson Persons and Wendy Oxenhorn. This was the starting of the American street newspaper movement, and provided a way of self-sufficiency to the many homeless and unemployed people in New York. The starting price was $1 with 25 cents being used to maintain the business and 75 cents as profit for the vendors.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people in the U.S. state of Ohio enjoy most of the same rights as non-LGBTQ people. Same-sex sexual activity has been legal in Ohio since 1974, and same-sex marriage has been legally recognized since June 2015 as a result of Obergefell v. Hodges. Ohio statutes do not address discrimination on account of sexual orientation and gender identity; however, the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County established that employment discrimination against LGBTQ people is illegal in 2020. In addition, a number of Ohio cities have passed anti-discrimination ordinances providing protections in housing and public accommodations. Conversion therapy is also banned in a number of cities. In December 2020, a federal judge invalidated a law banning sex changes on an individual's birth certificate within Ohio.
The Jeepney Magazine is a street newspaper sold by poor and homeless people in the Philippines. It was launched in March 2008 with two purposes: to write for and about the poor, and to provide them with jobs to make a living. It is sold for 100 pesos, half of which the seller keeps. Selling 10 copies per day is expected to eventually let the sellers exceed the minimum wage by 40 percent. The Jeepney Magazine is published by the Urban Opportunities for Change Foundation and is a member of the International Network of Street Papers. The name refers to the jeepney, the most popular means of public transportation in the Philippines and a symbol of Philippine culture.
The Julia Tuttle Causeway sex offender colony was an encampment of banished, registered sex offenders who were living beneath the Julia Tuttle Causeway—a highway connecting Miami, Florida to Miami Beach, Florida, United States—from 2006 to April 2010. The colony was created by a lobbyist named Ron Book, who wrote ordinances in several different Miami-Dade County cities to restrict convicted sex offenders from living within 2,500 feet (760 m) of schools, parks, bus stops, or homeless shelters. Since Book was also head of the Miami Homeless Trust, he was also in charge of finding housing for the released sexual offenders. Under these ordinances, the only areas where sex offenders could legally reside within Miami-Dade County were the Miami Airport and the Florida Everglades. Miami-Dade laws are significantly stricter than State of Florida laws on residency restrictions for sex offenders. Florida state law required that no sex offender could live within 1,000 feet (300 m) from "where children gather". Under that requirement, housing was possible; however, because of Book's lobbying, the Dade County Commission increased that number to 2,500 feet (760 m), thereby banishing hundreds of local citizens who then began gathering under the Julia Tuttle Causeway.
The Big Issue Malawi is a street paper in Malawi. It is a bimonthly magazine sold only by homeless individuals. The project's facilitator is a local charity known as the "Culture Awakening Society"
Homelessness in the United States has differing rates of prevalence by state. The total number of homeless people in the United States fluctuates and constantly changes, hence a comprehensive figure encompassing the entire nation is not issued, since counts from independent shelter providers and statistics managed by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development vary greatly. Federal HUD counts hover annually at around 500,000 people. Point-in-time counts are also vague measures of homeless populations and are not a precise and definitive indicator for the total number of cases, which may differ in both directions up or down. The most recent figure for 2019, was 567,715 individuals nationally that experienced homelessness at a point in time during this period.
Columbus, the capital city of Ohio, has a history of social services to provide for low- and no-income residents. The city has many neighborhoods below the poverty line, and has experienced a rise in homelessness in recent decades. Social services include cash- and housing-related assistance, case management, treatment for mental health and substance abuse, and legal and budget/credit assistance.
Sage Frederick Lewis is an American homelessness activist, author, and small business owner. He is known for allowing a homeless encampment of 50 people on his private property in Akron, Ohio.
The 2022 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress, produced by The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, estimated that 10,654 Ohioans faced homelessness during the year, representing 9 in every 10,000 individuals. Over 80% of the homeless were sheltered. This population was made up of 3,214 people who belonged to families with children, 703 unaccompanied youth, 633 veterans, and 1,023 chronically homeless individuals.