Social reform rarely achieves results from the clumsy hand of the government. Usually state institutions are too concerned with allocation of funds to bother worrying about exactly how effectively their resources will be used.
The Homeless Cooperative newspaper, which first published in Madison last December, has been a far more successful avenue for social change than any smoking ban city hall has issued. It has given not only jobs but a reason to get up every morning to struggling individuals in Madison. It has given a new perspective to Madison residents who previously did not understand the homeless. And it has done all this without having to struggle with the dissenting bureaucracy in the government.
The content in the Homeless Cooperative varies from opinion/editorial to poetry. Each piece gives readers some new understanding about how the homeless writers see the world, and most of it is surprisingly insightful. Many of the issues they discuss never enter the mainstream public discourse because they are seen as being "homeless people issues" — welfare reform, poverty and so fourth. True, issues like those are most important to the down and out, but they affect the middle class too. To have a functional society, all members must participate actively, and if some segment feels like it is being completely neglected, it will be reluctant to do anything but sit around and mope.
Several homeless individuals who used to panhandle all day are selling newspapers now instead. Now that they have something to during the day, they no longer feel rejected by society. They now serve a constructive purpose and that reflects on our community. They contribute to Madison's culture by helping the middle class understand themselves and others like them. Those who write are able for the first time to think more critically about issues that may have been amorphous in their minds. Putting ideas to paper often makes them more concrete, and a deeper understanding of their own thoughts will no doubt allow them to crystallize their beliefs, perhaps making them more active members of the community.
Feel-good social issues aside, there is some element of money involved in every aspect of life, and the Homeless Cooperative is no exception. A copy of the publication will set you back a whole dollar — expensive for a newspaper, but a small price to pay for real social change.
In fact, distributors have even been known to give them away for free. I'm not advocating stealing from the homeless, but I am trying to underscore how excited the homeless community is about getting people to listen to them. In any case, 75
