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Termination of Street Spirit newspaper threatens the homeless

by Lynda Carson (tenantrule [at] yahoo.com)
It was announced that after 22 years of sponsorship that the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) will cease funding the operations of Street Spirit as of December 31, 2016!
Termination of Street Spirit newspaper threatens the homeless

By Lynda Carson - October 20, 2016

Street Spirit, that beautiful scrappy newspaper sold by the homeless in Berkeley and Oakland that covers issues of the homeless, renters, and many other issues is being threatened with a loss of it’s funding in January. The loss of funding to the paper is a direct threat to the 100 or more homeless vendors who sell Street Spirit as a way to survive and make a living while they are homeless, and living on the cold streets in the East Bay.

In an article that first appeared on the web in Street Spirit but has since disappeared, and reappeared shortly later in the Berkeley Daily Planet, it was announced that after 22 years of sponsorship that the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) will cease funding the operations of Street Spirit as of December 31, 2016.

In a number of communications with Terry Messman, founding editor of Street Spirit, he repeatedly said, “I am very concerned about the well being of all the homeless vendors who depend on Street Spirit as a way to help them survive.”

In the article that disappeared from the online version of Street Spirit that later appeared in the Berkeley Daily Planet, Messman said, “The news came as a complete shock to all of us, especially since Street Spirit had just completed our most successful year ever, with an amazing outpouring of good writers, and our participation in some highly meaningful solidarity campaigns with activist groups. Also, the AFSC had just funded a $15,000 evaluation and planning process to guide the paper for the next 3-5 years. 

“So it came completely out of the blue. We were given absolutely no advance warning that they were planning to shut down the program due to AFSC’s budget shortages. I was stunned to realize that more than 100 disabled, elderly and homeless vendors would lose their livelihood. And all the dozens of writers who have done such dedicated work for Street Spirit would be silenced, and all the activist groups we stand in solidarity with would lose their major media outlet.”

In regards to the AFSC funding Street Spirit for the past 22 years, making 20,000 copies of the newspaper available for free each month that the homeless could ask the public to pay $1 (one dollar) for, money they are allowed to keep, Messman said, “AFSC has done a tremendous amount of good during that period, and I have been treated fairly as an AFSC staff. I have no complaints for myself.”
 
But, he continued, “The sudden abandonment of all the extremely poor vendors who depend on Street Spirit will cause terrible damage. And this casts aside all the writers and community activists who have given so much of their time and energy and devotion to Street Spirit and AFSC over the years.”

Thanks to realtors, speculators, and apartment associations that have conspired to exploit renters to the maximum, rents have skyrocketed in recent years to such extremes that many people are only a paycheck away from becoming homeless and landing on the streets, or in tent cities. Especially the elderly, poor and disabled. But this also includes most working class families that have been forced out of their housing by greedy landlords involved in price gouging.

The mass evictions taking place have compelled thousands of people to unite with one another to place renter protections on the ballot for November, in an effort to stop the mass evictions taking place that are condoned by City officials around the Bay Area.

The Effort To Save Street Spirit

In the community effort to save Street Spirit, during September, Youth Spirit Artworks (YSA) decided to invite Street Spirit to build a new home with them.

In addition to the Berkeley Daily Planet, articles about the plight of Street Spirit have also appeared in the Oakland Post, and Daily Cal newspaper recently.

Street Spirit has been around for years and many of the wonderful photos in the newspaper through the years were taken by photographer Lydia Gans, a co-founder of East Bay Food Not Bombs.

Asides from articles dealing with homelessness, mass eviction stories and tenant issues, including many other issues, there has been a lot of poetry that could be found in Street Spirit through the years including some of the poetry here from February 2005.

For many years, Street Spirit published the writings of “Poor Leonard’s Almanack” including some of the wit and humor found here during February 2005.

In 2006, Street Spirit reported on the unfairness of the courts in regards to the poor in Richmond, and how tenants spoke out against the unfairness of the court system.

During 2010, Street Spirit covered the news about Arnieville, an encampment in Berkeley of people who were concerned about the horrific cuts made to services for seniors and the disabled, by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

It was in September of 2013 that Street Spirit reported on how California prisoners suspended their epic hunger strike on the 60th day of fasting in protest against practices related to solitary confinement.

As the months and years continued to fly by, Street Spirit was there in Sacramento in April of 2015, to cover the activists pushing for the “Right To Rest Act” a bill that was introduced to support an end to laws that make it illegal for homeless persons to exist in public spaces.

As recent as August 26, 2016, Street Spirit also reported on the City of Oakland’s efforts to shut down Alliance Metals, a recycling center needed by the homeless to survive.

Presently Street Spirit newspaper is struggling to survive and needs the help of the public and the community at large to become sustainable now that the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) decided to cut the funding for the Street Spirit newspaper.

As first reported online in Street Spirit in an article that disappeared during the month of October 2016, and reappeared in the Berkeley Daily Planet recently, people can still read all about the campaign to save Street Spirit.

Lynda Carson may be reached at tenantsrule [at] yahoo.com  
 
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