THE HOMELESS : They’re Pressing the Issue
The bimonthly paper does not have snazzy graphics, color photographs or advertising. But since its first issue hit the streets, Hard Times for Now--Los Angeles’ first newspaper devoted to homeless issues--has given its itinerant writers a soapbox for their concerns.
The journal’s collection of prose, poetry and editorials reflects the lives of homeless contributors--somber, reflective, often angry. Len Doucette, the paper’s editor, publisher and reporter, and himself homeless, says the journal’s goal is twofold: to educate the public about homelessness and to provide a source of income for its employees.
About a dozen homeless men and women offer Hard Times for a $1 donation on sidewalks and street corners in Culver City, Santa Monica, West Hollywood and Beverly Hills. The publication, which began last May, has given a voice to a group that has long felt neglected.
“When selling our paper, we can meet people eyeball to eyeball instead of hanging our heads in shame,” said Doucette. “The public can feed our stomachs and we can feed their minds. It’s a two-way instead of a one-way street.”
Doucette, a contemplative, soft-spoken man with white hair and a goatee, often peddles his paper holding a hand-lettered sign. Pedestrians usually ignore him or shoot a nervous glance.
But despite what some think is a ploy for a handout, Hard Times offers an engaging variety of editorials, first-person articles and letters, poetry and social commentary. High school students, former Santa Monica city attorney Bob Myers, homeless poet Matthew Hudson and Rabbi Neil Comess-Daniels of Santa Monica’s Beth Shir Sholom are contributors.
Although Doucette admits that it is difficult to raise the $455 every other month to print 10,000 copies for each edition, he remains grateful for the support of key patrons. The L.A. Village View newspaper has allowed Doucette to use its phones and share printing facilities. A group of Westside rabbis and actor Martin Sheen have also provided donations.
One goal of Hard Times is to explain the experiences of those who--for a variety of reasons, from the lack of affordable housing to the loss of manufacturing jobs--end up homeless.
“Most people’s encounters with the homeless are through panhandlers, which creates the stereotype that we are all drunks, drug addicts, crazies or bag ladies,” Doucette said. “But a large percentage of the homeless are the elderly, the working poor and families with children. That’s why our paper’s out, so you can get to know some of them.”
And there are a growing number to know.
A study by Shelter Partnership Inc., a support agency for homeless programs in downtown Los Angeles, estimates that as many as 83,900 people--including 9,000 children--are without homes in the county on any given night. The results, released in November, covered July, 1992- to June, 1993.
Homeless advocates say the emergence of Hard Times is timely. Many California cities are cracking down on the homeless with tighter curfews, citations for sleeping in cars and restrictions on outdoor feeding programs. With no solution to the homeless problem in sight, advocates say, it’s time to listen to the homeless for an answer.
“You cannot resolve the problems of homelessness until you go to the people most affected,” said Ron Taylor, a homeless man who received more than 2,000 votes when he ran for the Santa Monica City Council in a losing bid last November. “The homeless must have a voice in finding a solution.”
It is a subject Doucette knows well. He suffered a back injury in a moped accident in 1986. With no health or disability insurance, he began a long spiral down to the streets.
Over the years, Doucette has endured his share of hard times--Sleeping in RTD buses, under piers and in public shelters. There have been constant hassles from the police. There is also what he says is a growing hatred from the public.
By starting his “homeless newspaper,” Doucette hearkens back to a long literary tradition of exploring homelessness as a vehicle for popular fiction and crusading journalism. George Orwell’s “Down and Out in Paris and London,” Jack London’s “People of the Abyss,” and John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath” are examples. Such themes can also be found in the work of beat generation literature--the poetry of Allen Ginsberg and the novels of Jack Kerouac.
The publication of Hard Times also mirrors a phenomenon occurring in other major cities.
Nationwide, there are 24 “homeless” journals with such names as Street News in New York City, Streetwise in Chicago, and The Homeless Times in San Francisco, said James Danky, a newspapers librarian at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin.
“By reading these papers you think, ‘There but for the grace of God go I,’ you encounter someone who looks a lot like you--people (who) have thoughts of their own that are articulate and literate,” Danky said.
Despite his struggles, Doucette said his endeavor has given him one crucial element so often missing out on the street: pride.
“I’ll be sitting there selling and some people come at me screaming, ‘Why don’t you get a job?’ ” he said. “I just say, ‘This is my job.’ ”
PAIN
By Robert Alexander (homeless poet)
I love to walk in the rain
So that no one can see my tears
And no one will know my pain.
The pain I carried around for years.
When the thunder sounds its roar
Then no one can hear my moans.
I love those massive downpours,
Then I can grieve and cry alone.
Not a soul can ease the ache
That rattles within my core.
Often I am sure that I’ll break
And my heart will beat no more.
Love saved me, time and again
From falling into despair
But, right now, I hurt so bad
I could be beyond repair.
(Reprinted by permission of Hard Times)
