Spare Change News

Category: Voices from the Streets

  • “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”: Teaching, Learning and the Immigrant Experience Part III

    Jacques Fleury Spare Change News “Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other.” Paulo Freire In my previous articles, I explored the teaching techniques and ideologies in Paulo Freire’s book: “Pedagogy of the Oppressed,” a text…

  • Borderlands: The Breeder (Part One)

    By Marc D. Goldfinger Spare Change News Patricia turned and looked back at the pale man with hate. Her eyes trailed along the gold links of the leash that he held in his hand that connected her to him. She wanted to spit in the street but restrained herself because she knew that Joseph, the…

  • How I Arrived At Spare Change News (Conclusion)

    By Marc D. Goldfinger SPARE CHANGE NEWS Click here to read Part I of How I Arrived At Spare Change News. The radio in my 1955 Buick was humming as my friend Jack and I sat in a parking lot in the South Mountain Reservation in South Orange, New Jersey, loaded on codeine-based cough syrup…

  • The Early Years of Spare Change News: Insights From Its Founding Organizer

    By Paula Mathieu SPARE CHANGE NEWS Its 20th anniversary seems an apt time for Spare Change News and its readers to look back and reflect on the paper’s early history. “I wouldn’t have predicted this paper would last 20 years,” admits Tim Harris, who in 1992 was the idealistic journalist and homeless organizer responsible for…

  • How I Arrived At Spare Change News (Part One)

    Marc D. Goldfinger Spare Change News In our lives there are always beginnings and endings. When one door opens, sometimes you step through and find yourself in a hallway littered with debris, and all the way down the hall there are doors on both sides. Some of them are open and various figures stand in…

  • The Need for Public Restrooms: One Plight of the Homeless

    Samson Howard Special to Spare Change News Have you ever seen a sign that says, “Bathrooms for patrons only. Do not even ask!” If you are homeless you probably have. So what does one do? Relief is essential and public urination is a criminal offense. In this matter, dogs have more rights than human beings…

  • New Leader Appointed at Homeless Empowerment Project/Spare Change News

    Adam Sennott Spare Change News The Homeless Empowerment Project (HEP)/Spare Change News recently announced the hiring of its new Executive Director. Vincent Flanagan, who previously served as Development Director for Legal Affairs for Give Us Your Poor, was hired to replace outgoing interim Executive Director Bob Woodbury on May 17. Flanagan stated that he and…

  • The Underground Intern Economy

    Most workers reap non-financial benefits from their labor such as new skills and expertise. But for interns, these intangible benefits do not offer a legal or ethical substitution for wages. By Anonymous Unpaid internships are often a recent graduate’s first foray into the professional world. Internships—both paid and unpaid—provide a foot in the door and,…

  • Spare Change News Story Trade

    In celebration of the 20th anniversary of Spare Change News, StoryStream conducted a storytelling session with many of the homeless vendors. They talked about their experiences selling the paper on the streets of Cambridge — what it means to them to be part of the business, what their experiences have been, and their views of…

  • Editorial: A Fight Over Scarce Resources

    The Patrick administration and homeless advocates are at odds for the second consecutive year over how scarce funds for homeless programs will be spent in the next state budget. The administration wants to limit the amount of money it spends on homeless shelters and motels, and move the savings into permanent housing and the support…