REAL CHANGE HOMELESS EMPOWERMENT PROJECT
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Mission Statement
Real Change exists to provide opportunity and a voice for low-income and homeless people while taking action for economic, social, and racial justice.
About This Cause
For the last 20 years, Real Change has provided a low-barrier employment opportunity that extends dignity and self-determination into the lives of homeless men and women. Our mission is to provide opportunity and a voice for low-income and homeless people while taking action for economic justice. Real Change provides self-employment opportunity for about 800 homeless and very low-income men and women who sell the paper each year. Since 2005, Real Change has doubled the number of vendors selling the paper. The annual One Night Count in King County found at least 3,123 men, women, and children sleeping outside without shelter in the early hours of January 25, 2014. This number, an increase of 14 percent over 2013, is assumed to be an undercount, in part because many people are very careful not to be visible. And that count is only part of the story. It includes just the people without shelter on that particular night; it does not include homeless people sleeping in emergency or transitional shelters. In response to the homeless one-night count in King County, Real Change launched OutsideIN, a public art campaign linked to a Change.org petition, to pressure policymakers to reduce the 2015 unsheltered count by 1,000 persons. We gathered 5,022 signatures since May and presented the petition to Seattle City Council at their budget hearing on October 23, 2014, when more than a hundred community members and human service advocates gave testimony to City Council in support of increased investment in resources to address homelessness and other human service needs. The action made the front page of the Seattle Times and the result of the campaign was a resounding victory: The City of Seattle budget included an increase of $1.2 million in funds for homeless services. Our January 2014 Vendor Survey (290 responses) revealed that, of those we serve, 48% are currently homeless, 46% have previously been homeless, 16% are sleeping outside, 13% are sleeping in a shelter, 4% sleep in their car, and 33% are in transitional or subsided housing. The majority are male (77%) between the ages of 40 and 60 with 47% having at least one physical or mental disability. Real Change addresses homelessness through three integrated programs: Vendor Services: This program meets the vendors where they are. No ID is required. Vendors pay Real Change 60 cents per newspaper up-front and resell the paper on the street for the $2 cover price plus tips. Vendors begin selling the paper immediately after a ninety-minute orientation that includes agreement to the code of conduct, brief sales training, and an invitation to involvement in various program activities. Additional opportunities include advanced sales trainings, elected vendor leadership positions, vendor internships, and eligibility for paid staff positions. Real Change also offers various recognition and volunteer opportunities, including training and paid participation in the Homeless Speakers Bureau. Real Change Newspaper: In addition to serving vendors who sell the newspaper, Real Change publishes a high-quality newspaper with content consistently focused on poverty, homelessness, and economic justice. Real Change engages readers and the general public in taking action for economic justice and advocating for the survival needs of the very poor. Real Change is North America’s most successful street newspaper and won sixteen first place awards for excellence this year from the Washington Press Association and the Society of Professional Journalists. The newspaper is produced by four professional staff and dozens of volunteers, and is informed by a homeless and formerly homeless editorial committee that meets weekly to discuss and review content. In late 2014, Real Change will introduce a phone app to provide cashless face-to-face vendor sales and digital content for viewing on one’s mobile device. Real Change Advocacy: Real Change leverages the relationships that exist between vendors and readers to build a cross-class movement for economic justice and build the political will to fund increased services and housing for homeless and low-income people. In addition to our OutsideIN Campaign, we sponsor cultural events that link the problem of growing income inequality and economic vulnerability with homeless survival issues. Our impact is to provide employment to reduce the devastation of poverty and homelessness and to mitigate the injustice of social and political systems that undermine the potential of the individual. Poverty is political; it's constructed, and makes visible that for which we are willing to settle. Are we willing to settle for widespread suffering on the streets and disconnection from community? Radical inequality creates economic vulnerability for the shrinking middle-class and has deprived many of the long-term unemployed of having any meaningful economic opportunity at all. In a society where the benefits of work and productivity are distributed this unevenly, democracy itself is threatened.