page_title: Street newspaper
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Street newspaper / Description
caption_attribution_description: StreetWise vendor in 2005.
context_page_description: Street newspapers are newspapers or magazines sold by homeless or poor individuals and produced mainly to support these populations. Most such newspapers primarily provide coverage about homelessness and poverty-related issues, and seek to strengthen social networks within homeless communities. Street papers aim to give these individuals both employment opportunities and a voice in their community. In addition to being sold by homeless individuals, many of these papers are partially produced and written by them.
  In the late 19th and early 20th centuries several publications by charity, religious, and labor organizations tried to draw attention to the homeless, but street newspapers only became common after the founding of New York City's Street News in 1989. Similar papers are now published in over 30 countries, with most located in the United States and Western Europe. They are supported by governments, charities, and coalitions such as the International Network of Street Papers and the North American Street Newspaper Association.
context_section_description: Most street newspapers have three main purposes:
  To provide income and job skills to the homeless and other marginalized individuals, who act as vendors of and often contributors to the newspapers
  To provide coverage of, and to educate the general public about, issues pertaining to homelessness and poverty
  To establish social networks within homeless communities and between homeless individuals and service providers
  The defining characteristic of a street newspaper is that it is sold by homeless or marginalized vendors.  While many street newspapers aim to provide coverage of social issues and educate the public about homelessness, this goal is often secondary: many people who buy street newspapers do so to support and express solidarity with the homeless vendor, rather than to read the paper.
  The precise demographics of the readership of street newspapers is unclear. A pair of 1993 surveys conducted by Chicago's StreetWise suggested that the paper's readers at the time tended to be college-educated, with slightly over half being female, and slightly over half unmarried.
caption: A vendor for StreetWise in Chicago
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