THE WORD : Street Sheet

Amid the organic produce and flower stalls of Santa Monica’s downtown farmer’s market, middle-aged “Margaret,” a chain-smoking grandmother wearing jeans and a denim jacket, is working the crowd.

“Have you got a copy of the homeless newspaper?” she asks the shoppers.

That’s all most passersby need to hear: They divert their eyes--a few tell her to get a job.

Margaret is not panhandling; she’s selling Hard Times, Los Angeles’ first newspaper devoted to homeless issues. In the tradition of similar “street sheets” in New York, Paris and San Francisco, Hard Times is giving a growing number of L.A.’s homeless both a forum and a means to make a few bucks without asking for a handout.

Founded last May by Santa Monica activist Len Doucette, Hard Times is a mix of articles, editorials, essays and poetry that chronicle the plight of the homeless. An item in one recent edition, for example, commemorates the 50th anniversary of Iwo Jima by reporting on homeless veterans. The 12-page newspaper has a circulation of 10,000 and is published every other month.

Doucette raises money for the publication from various community groups, then distributes Hard Times to his hundred-or-so vendors. They ask for a dollar donation, an amount that can mean the difference between rent and sleeping on the streets.

Margaret, for example, gets $212 in general relief from the county; she is able to pay her rent by selling her 100 copies of the homeless paper in venues from Hollywood to Santa Monica.

“I couldn’t panhandle. I’d be too ashamed,” says Margaret, who says her illnesses and consequent unemployment have at times forced her into city shelters. “When I sell them Hard Times they get something for their money.”--David Cogan