Listen Now:

Vendor Kurt Winans has a regular spot near his apartment in MetroCenter.

At a time when newspapers are struggling to keep paying customers, so-called street papers are exploding. Street papers benefit the homeless, who sell them as an alternative to panhandling. Around the country many are growing by double digits. Publications in Nashville and Los Angeles have quadrupled in size over the last year and helped dozens of people make enough money to get housing.

There’s nothing fancy about the street paper model. Homeless people buy them for a quarter and sell them for a dollar. In Nashville, salesmen are told not to be pushy and let the paper sell itself.

“Merry Christmas, God bless,” says Kurt Winans as he hands a crisp copy of “The Contributor” to a woman through her passenger-side window.

Winans is one of about 400 “vendors” – some newly homeless, others with more chronic problems – who have fanned out across downtown. Some even ride the bus out to Goodlettsville and Brentwood and set up at Interstate off-ramps.

Big Month

“The Contributor” sold out of the November issue, achieving the largest single-month circulation in the country by moving 75,000 copies.

Tasha French, founder of The Contributor, works out of the Downtown Presbyterian Church.

“I don’t think we’re the best street paper,” says founder Tasha French. “We’re working on our content. I don’t think our content’s the best. I don’t think we have the best staff of any other paper, so I don’t’ know why our circulation is so high.”

French, calls the paper’s trajectory “mind boggling,” especially considering where it started three years ago. Back then, a volunteer who trains the salesmen would warn them: “This job won’t get you off the streets.”

“And I kind of hated the phrase at the time,” French says. “But I kind of agreed with him. You’re not going to make enough money with this alone to get off the streets. And he’s long-since stopped saying that.”

One in four vendors selling for a month or more now has a place to live. The salesmen collectively will make close to a million dollars this year.

Making a Living

The top performers have done more than put a roof over their heads. Working dawn to dusk, Corey Paul has sold 1,600 papers a month, netting close to $3,000 with tips.

Vendor Corey Paul has been one of The Contributor’s top salesmen.

Dressed in jeans, sunglasses and a bright yellow jacket, Paul no longer looks the part of the pill-popping drunk he was not long ago.

“Once I started making money, I started buying some clothes and keeping shaved,” Paul says.

He now has regulars who stop by once or twice a week, like Mary Jane. She asked if he was actually homeless.

“I said I was, until I started doing this, and that got me off the streets,” Paul recalls. “Now she buys more papers than she was.”

Many customers are compelled by homeless people helping themselves instead of asking for a handout. They don’t seem to care about the articles on poverty or the homeless-themed crossword puzzles.

About the Cause, not the Content

Ask a few customers if they read the paper, and the answers range from “no” to “every once in a while.”

“I don’t always read it, but I have read it,” says Bridget Donnell, who buys multiple copies of the same issue primarily because of the turnaround she’s witnessed with many vendors.

But some customers are starting to question if some vendors really need their help, especially when a homeless person isn’t homeless anymore. Michael Crowder is one of several who have emailed the paper with their concerns.

“I have to scratch my head and wonder how is a homeless person selling newspapers on the corner and making more money than me,” he asks.

Crowder lives on disability. As a young man, he was homeless himself and says he’ll continue to buy the paper for now. But he says some street paper vendors need to move on. Otherwise they’re taking advantage of people’s compassion.

“The whole purpose of “The Contributor” is to have these people placed in a situation where they can get out of this homelessness and get a job,” he says.

For Some, Best Gig

For some, vending the paper is a temporary bridge to something better, says Tim Harris, founder of street papers in Boston and now Seattle which have been around for more than a decade.

“We are realists on this question,” he says. “There are also those who for various reasons, this is the best gig that they’re going to get.”

Some have felony convictions or lack a high school diploma. Those vendors will be around a while. And since that can be a turnoff, Harris says street papers have to become less charity-like and more business-like – attracting customers based on the quality of their content and not just goodwill.

More: