Street Roots: an unemployment parable

Jeannie, Street Roots vendor from St. John. (Susan Tait)

Jeannie sells Street Roots, the nonprofit newspaper that assists the homeless with flexible income opportunities. On March 20th she was standing in the shadows at 6th and Morrison. She doesn't intercept people, but she'll make eye contact if you look first. Her expression changes subtly, gently, if you hold her gaze. She glanced at my camera.

"Takin' pictures today?"

"Yeah, some. Do you come here a lot?"

"Well, I go all over, but I have my regulars."

My brows rise. "If you go all over, how do you have regulars?"

Jeannie explains that she lives in St. Johns and sells Street Roots on the corner there, and comes to 6th and Morrison regularly too. She shows me her vendor license and ID. She's sold a lot of papers today, judging by what's left in the clear plastic bag that holds her inventory.

I buy a paper and ask if I may take her picture. Her face lights up and she pushes her glasses up. 

A panhandler pushes up to us. "Spare some change, lady?"

"No, thank you," I said automatically. He hesitated and then moved off.

I encourage her to talk. Jeannie says she had a colostomy operation that turned dangerous. She was unconscious for several days. The hospital gathered her family at the bedside, but she pulled through. Her colostomy bag sits discreetly at her feet. She's now waiting to have a second operation to reverse the effects of the first operation. Meanwhile, she stands her ground in a dark coat, the yellow hem of her dress peeking out, selling papers for $1 each about a world I have always turned my face from.

The panhandler is still hanging around. He solicits a drag from another man's cigarette and hands it back. He walks up Morrison, to the Wells Fargo ATM facing the MAX stop at Pioneer Square, and settles himself just inside the portico. A few minutes later, a private security guard walks past, and the man moves back onto the sidewalk, then returns to the corner less than eight feet away from Jeannie.

"Spare some change?"

Fifteen minutes later, they are both gone.

Some job seekers offer what they have and look for incremental ways to sharpen their skills, not just in technical or tool dimensions, but in social and spiritual dimensions.

Some job seekers demand that they be given something before they can help themselves. "I need this certification, or class, or tool, before I can get a job." They are bitter about what they've lost. They are afraid that they can't move on without more training, more proof that they're good and worthy and competent people.

It's true that a lot of companies confuse the ability to click commands with the ability to use a tool. It's like saying, because you know MS-Project, you must know how to manage a project.

It's also true that a lot of companies confuse credentials with competency. They'll miss good hires by not realizing that 70% of what's needed is learned on the job.

Finally, it's true that the only way things can get better, individually and communally, is if we use what we have to make what we need. Even if it's a $1 paper on a shadowed corner.

Street Roots can be reached at info@streetroots.org.