Street Sense Media

Street Sense vendor and artist Rita Sauls lives in a tent encampment with around 30 other people in Washington, D.C.

"Before becoming a tenter, I was living in a three-bedroom house," she said. "It did catch on fire, so I was displaced.”

In addition to being a Street Sense vendor and artist, Sauls is also a "tent facilitator," which means she provides and helps set up tents for other homeless people in the District.

"I used to walk around and see people on the benches and in the streets and in the storefronts, and I would ask them, 'Would you like a tent?'" she said.

In this week's episode of the "Look at This" podcast, Sauls talks about how she became a tent facilitator and reveals some of the hardships and losses she and her fellow tenters face by living on the streets in D.C.

Carlton Johnson is a homeless man who sells the Street Sense newspaper in Washington, D.C. He's also a poet.

Although Johnson began writing poetry when he was young, the poems he writes today reflect the things he sees and feels when he's out on the streets. Sometimes he even recites poetry to his customers.

"I call it street slamming," he said. "They'll see what I see but they'll hear what I'm feeling.”

In the first episode of "Look at This," Brian Carome, Street Sense Media's executive director, said a valuable resource the newspaper provides for its vendors is an opportunity for self-expression. Many vendors, like Johnson, do this by writing articles or poetry for the newspaper they sell.

This week's episode of the "Look at This" podcast, Johnson and fellow vendors Ayub Abdul and Darleesha Joyner share their poetry and talk about the importance creative expression plays in their lives.

Sheila White has been able to turn her life around thanks to the classes and connections she found working as a Street Sense vendor in D.C. In this week's episode of the "Look At This" podcast, White talks about how working for Street Sense Media put her on the path toward earning a college degree and pursuing a career in photojournalism.

In the premiere episode of "Look at This," vendors Marcellus Phillips and Chon Gotti share stories on how Street Sense Media has helped them turn their lives around and become more self-sufficient and independent.

“When you’re homeless, you have kids, you have bills, you have family, friends, responsibilities,” Ronald Dudley said. “The only thing separating you from the rest of the world is a lease.”

Dudley, aka Pookanu, is a musician on a spiritual mission — a mission to make sense of life, God, and fatherhood. It’s a lot to examine when you consider he’s relentlessly working to not only provide for his family but also find permanent housing. His life hasn’t been easy and you can hear it in the hard-bitten, sermon-like lyrics on his recently-released album, Father’s Day. Pookanu joins Sounds from the Street to discuss music, family and his experience with homelessness.

You can read more in this feature interview and his music is available at pookanu.com.

A full transcript of this interview is available here.

As a girl, Wendy Oxenhorn aspired to become a professional ballerina before a tragic injury shattered her dream. But that twist of fate catapulted her into a life of social work that eventually led her to co-found the first street paper and spark a global movement. Today, there are 112 street papers in 35 countries employing some 11,000 homeless vendors at any given time.

But Wendy’s work didn’t stop there. She eventually landed a dream job saving musicians’ lives at the Jazz Foundation of America and was recently named a 2016 NEA Jazz Master, the nation’s highest honor in jazz.

Wendy shares her incredible journey in her own words.

A full transcript of this interview is available here.

Born in Mississippi, raised in Pennsylvania, Patty Smith now calls D.C. home. It’s here where she’s spent the last decade selling Street Sense. She started in 2005, two years after the paper was founded. Her life, like many struggling with housing stability, was steeped in unexpected setbacks, bad luck, bad relationships, and bad health. The one constant through the tough times has been music — Patty looooves music. She’s always singing, taking the pain and the grief of life — the blues –and transforming it into song.

A full transcript of this interview is available here.

On June 3, 2015, a group of students from Alice Deal Middle School organized a rally to support homeless anti-discrimination legislation. Guided by their teacher, Michael Martini, then-sixth graders Nico Foxley and Sofia Giorgianni worked with The National Coaltion for the Homeless and the People for Fairness Coalition. The capstone event was part of a year-long service-oriented curriculum where Alice Deal students explored the issue of homelessness. Tune in to hear two of the youngest activists ever, and their teacher, Mr. Martini.

A full transcript of this interview is available here.

Though Snowzilla and the dark days of winter are fading from our memories, it’s technically not spring yet. In fact, the Interagency Council on Homelessness’s [ICH] plan to protect the homeless from hypothermic injury lasts until the end of March.

Analyst Kate Coventry of the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute is on the show to share her knowledge of the Winter Plan. She’s joined by artist and advocate Reggie Black, who has firsthand experience on both sides of the Winter Plan. Formerly homeless, Reggie is now a member of ICH and is on the diverse team of policy makers and citizens tasked with designing the multi-layered plan.

A full transcript of this interview is available here.

After weeks of walking past a Street Sense vendor selling newspapers, online marketing expert Adam Motiwala eventually asked the vendor if he was interested in an experiment. What began as a one-on-one digital marketing tutorial developed into a weekly workshop at Street Sense called Digital Hope. Adam discusses how his workshop has evolved into a groundbreaking income-generating model for homeless individuals.

A full transcript of this interview is available here.