James Duby was sitting on the pavement near Third Avenue and West Burnside in early 2011, panhandling.
Duby had recently moved to Oregon, his 26th state of residence. He slept at a warming shelter as he had nowhere else to go.
Duby began selling the city’s nonprofit street newspaper, Street Roots, later that year. He found a place to live in 2015. He began working with Street Roots almost four years ago, and he is currently the vendor team assistant.
“I’ve found my home at last,” Duby stated. Thanks to Street Roots, I am in a better place than I have ever been.
In October, Street Roots relocated to a nearly 5,800-square-foot structure on the same downtown location where Duby had solicited assistance from onlookers over ten years prior.
As part of The Oregonian/OregonLive’s 2024 Season of Sharing Christmas fundraising drive, the nonprofit street newspaper hopes to use the money raised to support additional vendors, much as it helped Duby.
> Contribute to the general fund of the Season of Sharing or Street Roots. The code Season2024 can also be texted to 44-321.
Established in 1999, Street Roots is a weekly newspaper sold by homeless and impoverished individuals. Its return to Burnside Street is all the more emotional because it was first published as the Burnside Cadillac by the Bridge School, an adult literacy program. Since then, its journalism has gained recognition, as demonstrated by a recent collaboration with the investigative news organization ProPublica.
Kodee Zarnke, the nonprofit’s community partnerships manager, who was assigned to Street Roots through a volunteer program, remarked, “I had never heard of a street newspaper before.” I felt it was really creative and potent to use journalism, writing, and storytelling to build a community and generate revenue. I desired to take part in it.
The new facility, which Street Roots acquired with the aid of a nearly $3 million federal grant, is three times as large as the nonprofit’s previous location on Davis Street. It will enable Street Roots to increase the range of services it provides to vendors, such as a wellness center with showers and laundry facilities and a classroom for job-training and other programs.
The nonprofit intends to raise the higher overhead costs for Street Roots as a result of the expanded programs. Due to a capital campaign, the nonprofit’s most recent tax return, for 2022, indicates revenue of roughly $3 million, which is more than in previous years. This fiscal year, it has a budget of about $1.7 million.
When newspapers were delivered to the new building for the first time in late October, about three dozen individuals gathered there. Every Wednesday morning, the latest edition of Street Roots, which is printed in McMinnville, thunders up to Portland in the back of a truck.
After unloading the paperwork, vendors meet with employees to discuss the matter over coffee and doughnuts and to use a self-service station that also has socks and amenities.
The company serves over 600 clients annually and has about 230 active vendors. Approximately 120 vendors will sell newspapers each week.
The difference, plus any tips, is kept by the vendors, who pay 25 cents per copy and sell them for $1. Together, they sell roughly 5,000 papers every week, or 20,000 papers per month.
One fresh edition can be exchanged for two unsold papers. Vendors with little funds can obtain copies of the paper in a number of methods, such as office work, raffles, and publication in the paper.
The actual benefit, according to the vendors, is being a member of the Street Roots community, even though they utilize the money they make from selling papers to pay their bills.
Randy, who refers to himself as the “rat poet,” uses rodent images in his poetry. In addition to selling between 20 and 40 newspapers every week at the New Seasons at Southeast 20th Avenue and Division Street, he has been selling Street Roots since 2016.
Randy credits Street Roots with helping him get housing in 2022 after he lived on the streets for ten years. There are now fewer rats in his poetry and more squirrels and raccoons. “The best thing that ever happened to me,” he said of Street Roots.
Jelly, another vendor, sells over 100 papers every week, including outside the First Unitarian Church downtown and at the New Seasons on North Williams Avenue.
“I enjoy selling it,” he remarked. It is considered a job. I had no idea that it was a job.
Duby, the vendor helper who referred to Street Roots as his home, was standing on the same piece of downtown concrete where he had sat on the ground and begged for assistance over a dozen years prior.
“I’m taken back to the same location,” he remarked. However, it’s a far better place.
OregonLive/The Oregonian
What your donation can do
$25: Gives ten new vendors ten newspapers for free.
The vendor coffee station is stocked with $50.
$100: Provides hats, gloves, hand warmers, socks, and other essentials to the Street Roots vendor station.
Matthew Kish covers business, notably the banking and sportswear sectors. You can reach him at @matthewkish, [email protected], or 503-221-4386.
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