On a typical month, about 270 vendors find opportunity and meaning with Real Change. Every one of them has a story.
Homelessness, for most people, comes at the end of a very hard road. Real Change offers a way back up.
We can’t do it without you. I hear it all the time. “People love this paper.” We can’t take all the credit. People love the vendors too, and those who sell Real Change feel it everyday. The stories speak for themselves.
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| James Williams |
James Williams is a father of 10, a skilled carpenter, and a Katrina victim.
“My mother had to sue the insurance company to cover her house.” To this day, she hasn’t seen a dime. When Williams was relocated to Seattle, he was separated from his family, now scattered across Texas, Louisiana, and Georgia.
Once the FEMA money ran out, Williams was homeless.
“I lost my truck, my tools, and my contractor’s license in the flood,” said Williams, “I was broke, and Seattle is an expensive place.”
So a friend of a friend told Williams about Real Change. Slowly, things changed — nowadays, he’s selling so many papers that he was able to afford a visit to his mother in Louisiana.
To the thousands of Seattleites that made life possible after the flood, Williams said, “God bless you.”
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| Susan Kelley |
Susan Kelley taught kindergarten for 20 years. When she retired from teaching to take care of her mother, she rented her house out to a seemingly innocuous brother and sister — little did Kelley know, the two had rented under false names. When her tenants gained access to the personal information that Kelley kept in her attic, they transferred the house title to a deceased grandfather. Within three days, the pair sold her home for $300,000, packed up their belongings, and disappeared.
Kelley now supplements her income by selling papers. Since she started selling Real Change three years ago, she’s become one of the paper’s most successful vendors. If you ask her, though, that’s not what she likes best about the job.
“I love my customers… selling the paper is a reason to get up in the morning,” she says.
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| Willie Jones |
Willie Jones, a man who survived a cab mugging by 10 men unscathed, finally ran out of luck. One night, a man reached over his seat, put a knife in his ribs, and took the money in his till.
The government covered Jones’ hospital bills, but not the three months’ business he lost in recovery. A few years later, Willie was lifting 100-pound bags over his head, driving forklifts. Doing hard, grueling work — “the jobs nobody else would do” — for years, until a friend told Willie about Real Change.
“Do I like it? I love it,” Jones says. That figures: It took him less than a year to become one of the paper’s top vendors.
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| John Bayly |
John Bayly was born and raised in Queens, where he led a “normal” life for three decades. But a life can crumble under the weight of memory. When Bayly — troubled by an abusive childhood — sought help, a doctor informed him that he exhibited symptoms of a slew of mental illnesses, among them PTSD, depression, and anxiety.
“I had a job handing out flyers,” remembers Bayly of his most recent bout of homelessness. “I quit for no apparent reason.” Around the same time, Bayly’s mental illness prevented him from returning to his apartment building; he stayed on and off the streets of New York for the next three years.
But the stigma Bayly has faced gives him a sense of purpose — he’s become an advocate on issues facing the homeless. Since he came to Seattle in September, Bayly’s played a crucial role in advocacy efforts. He’s also acquired something of a fan club.
Last month, Bayly announced he’d found housing. “Real Change is a godsend,” he says.
Real Change is succeeding like never before. Circulation is up by more than 16 percent this year. Our organizing brings people together across class and builds a movement for change. The journalism just keeps getting better. And we owe it to you, the readers who provide nearly half the grassroots support that keeps the doors open and the bills paid.
An anonymous donor is matching new gifts of $100 and over, as well as gifts of $250 or more from previous supporters, up to $15,000. We’re pushing hard every day to improve the lives of homeless people and fight for the economic justice we all need.
Please support our work with a generous gift — of any amount — today.
Donate securely online or by use of the mailin form that can be found on page 3 of the Real Change newspaper, Vol. 14 No. 52. |
