Good Works Take: Street Sense

I like what these guys do a lot:

Street Sense is a Washington, D.C.-based 16-page biweekly street newspaper that was founded in 2003. Its mission is to raise public awareness on the issues of homelessness and poverty in the city and to create economic opportunities for people experiencing homelessness.
The newspaper features news, features, editorials, poems and art about homelessness and poverty contributed by homeless or formerly homeless people, advocates and professional writers interested in social issues.

Street Sense was founded in August 2003 after two volunteers, Laura Thompson Osuri and Ted Henson, approached the National Coalition for the Homeless on separate occasions about starting a street newspaper in Washington, D.C.

After bringing together a core of dedicated volunteers and vendors, Street Sense published its first issue in November 2003 with a print run of 5,000 copies. The paper has published consistently on a monthly and now biweekly basis and has greatly expanded its circulation and vendor network. It now sells nearly 12,000 papers every two weeks.

Street Sense vendors pay 25 cents for each paper to cover publishing costs and then sell each paper for $1. As of August 2007, Street Sense has about 60 active vendors. They can be found in downtown D.C. and some suburbs on busy corners and near Metro stations, usually during the lunch hour and the evening rush hour.

The vendors make an average of $40 a day, and some have even been able to use this money to move out of the shelter. Since 2004, at least 16 vendors have found housing and more than 30 have started part-time or full-time jobs, many of which were offered to them while selling the paper.