Each month, Wes Browning's newspaper column about homelessness sizzles with satire. The Seattle resident, who graduated from Cornell University with a Ph.D. in math and taught at Rutgers University, has a convenient soapbox as a writer for Real Change, a newspaper for and about the homeless.
Browning also has the background for the job.
He has been homeless three times in his life, with the latest episode beginning in June when the janitorial service he worked for went bankrupt. Now, he alternates between sleeping on the kitchen floor at a friend's apartment and on a couch at another friend's business. Before that, I had concocted stories, but I only told them verbally. It's a thrill, and I'm having so much fun. Browning also is president of the StreetLife Gallery, a cooperative of current and formerly homeless artists in Seattle.