KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — More than five years ago, the last pages of The Amplifier rolled out from a Morristown-area printer. And around five years later, the publisher of that street paper was welcomed back with a smile and open arms.
"We hadn't printed The Amplifier in five or six years. Came up this past June to pick up the first issue of The Street X Change and the person loading my papers up said, 'We remember y'all. You know, it's good to see you back,'" said Eddie Young, the publisher of the paper. "To have someone like this actually appreciate what you're doing, remember what you're doing, it's really important to us."
The second issue of The Street X Change hit the streets in November. In it, people could find personal stories of homelessness told by people who experienced it firsthand. The street paper follows in the steps of The Amplifier, distributed by representatives who may not have homes to go to and giving them a platform to share their stories.
Young is helping facilitate everything from the content that goes into the paper to how it's distributed.
"Eddie is just a guy that has a heart for people, and you can see through his publication that he will reach into the streets and actually talk to the people that are on the streets, engage with them," said Mike Walker, the advertising director as well as the sales and marketing director for the Citizen Tribune. "He just has a heart and soul for the people that are on the street."
The first issue of The Street X Change was first published in June, and stories ranged from a woman's personal experience of homelessness and incarceration to an analysis of data surrounding crimes commonly associated with homelessness.
Months later, after raising funds to print the paper and collecting stories to put in it, Young loaded up stacks of the second issue into a van and brought them to the Knoxville area.
"We just want to help. And I feel good about helping Eddie, and Eddie is trying to help the situation on the streets," said Walker. "It'd be nice not to have it. Meaning, what if we had a world where there was no homelessness, that it was a situation where everyone had the passion and compassion for people, that we could rid the world of homelessness? So, on one hand, I want to help Eddie reach the people on the street. But on the other hand, what if we didn't have to have the publication?"
The process of printing The Street X Change starts with the publisher essentially sending the printer a file, which is then downloaded into a folder. The printer then "paginates" it, effectively putting the pages of the file onto metal plates.
The plates are then processed and put on the press — literally pressing paper onto the metal plate, resulting in pages of the newspaper. Walker said it could take less than a day to print 1,000 copies.
He said he expects to print the street paper up to four times per year. He also said the newspaper promotes local nonprofits that help people facing homelessness and food insecurity, such as "The Daily Bread," a community kitchen.
After collecting the paper, Young brings it to downtown Knoxville. The first step of distributing the paper involves locating old friends, known as representatives of the paper. Many are unhoused and can be anywhere across Knoxville. So, finding representatives to distribute the paper can be like finding a needle in a Knoxville-sized haystack.
"Just trying to locate the representatives and get the papers into their hands is sometimes difficult. I get messages left on my phone from representatives but by the time I call them back, the number's no good. There's no answer. So even being able to contact somebody through a phone call is difficult to impossible sometimes," Young said.
To distribute the power, he spends hours traversing through downtown Knoxville searching for his old friends. And when he finally finds them, they are greeted with a warm smile and a stack of papers.
For each representative he reconnects with, Young opens his arms in a wide hug and their face lights up in a bright smile — eager to once again distribute the paper, and to see Young.
"It makes me feel good. I can talk to people, get to know people out here," said Homer McAllen, a representative of the paper. "Some of them know and some of them don't, because they don't know how it is to be here on the streets."