KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — For years, a newspaper was available at most Knoxville street corners. It told stories of people experiencing homelessness with articles focused on issues related to living life without an address. Some sources spoke about times their tents were thrown away, and others described difficulties finding food or medicine while living in poverty.
The first issue of The Street 'X' Change, published in June, starts with a metaphor about homelessness.
"Imagine being born into a room, the door locked behind you, seated (at) a table, and forced to play Monopoly. You’re handed the directions, but they’re written in a foreign language. You start with no money. No properties. And every roll, every move lands you on someone else’s property, or in jail. There is no space on that board where you can land without consequences. Good luck," the article's writer said.
He is Eddie Young, the paper's publisher. He founded the paper with a mission — to give marginalized people a chance to speak and to advocate for change. Through the Street 'X' Change, he hopes people may reconsider ideas they previously believed about homelessness.
"Let this be their paper, let this be their what we used to refer to as 'their amplifier.' Amplify their voices out to the community and let them speak. We don't need to give anybody power. They already have power. We just need to provide them an open door to exercise it," he said. "They deserve to have their stories told, and they deserve to be able to speak back and against things that are being said."
Young brought the idea to create a street paper over from Scotland, where he would see someone selling papers. The paper did not look like usual, large publications. Instead, it was named "The Big Issue," and it told stories about homelessness while emphasizing the personal experiences of people who experienced it.
"The most powerful thing we have found is that, when someone actually tells their story, it opens doors. It opens eyes. It opens minds. If you can actually read and hear someone's story, then it can help change what you've always believed, sometimes even the causes of homelessness," he said.
Up until around 2018, he helped publish "The Amplifier." For years before that street paper ended its run, it was a part of the Knoxville landscape. People could stop on their walks downtown and find someone handing it out, asking for around $1 in return. Often, city residents would repeatedly see the same distributors in the same area.
"It puts people in the path of someone who, every day, walks from a parking garage to their office. So, you'll see that individual, typically every day, and at some point you may say, 'Hey, I'll take a paper.' And you may start up a conversation with this individual," said Young. "I heard from members of the community speaking about this representative or that representative, 'I got to talk with this person. We had a conversation. I never knew this before.' And so, that personal contact is very important."
Through that personal connection, representatives of the paper may have a chance to feel heard while readers have a chance to learn about homelessness from the people it impacts firsthand. The paper also has guidelines on where their representatives can distribute the paper, specifically meant to follow Knoxville's panhandling ordinance.
Stories in The Street 'X' Change aren't only about homelessness, either.
"It's not 100% about homelessness all the time. We include other stories, especially right now as our friends in the LBGTQ+ community are being assaulted on every side, we like to include stories like that, to highlight people who are being disadvantaged, harassed, and pushed beyond the margins," said Young.
The first issue of the paper also features an in-depth exploration of Knoxville-area arrest statistics. In it, Young explores the numbers behind arrests for crimes often linked to homelessness, such as trespassing or shoplifting. It also features a story on SB 1610, which made it a Class C misdemeanor for camping along highways and under bridges, and also made it a Class E felony for camping on all public property, including parks.
It was criticized as effectively criminalizing homelessness. Gov. Bill Lee allowed the bill to become law without his signature.
"You come out of incarceration with that title, 'felon.' You're on the outside, you're beyond the margins for perhaps the rest of your life," Young said. "It's, how difficult is it for somebody to get a job, and to be able to get out of homelessness through being able to afford a place to live? I mean, that's a huge step right there."
Currently, the leading cause of homelessness in Knoxville is a lack of affordable housing. KnoxHMIS, which collects data about homelessness, found eviction and an inability to find affordable housing led to 59% of homelessness cases.
It also found the median amount of time a person spends homeless is 182 days — around half a year. KnoxHMIS also noted the average rent in Knox County has spiked since 2020 to over $1,400, climbing over the average national rent and far exceeding the average rental rate in Tennessee.
"When comparing one city to another, the root causes of homelessness almost always come down to housing. In particular, as a rule, U.S. cities are more likely to have high rates of homelessness when their inhabitants face two things: higher rent and fewer available rentals," the data system says.
Above all, Young said he hopes the paper leads to systemic change. He said he hopes it helps lead to a community where people can access necessities without concerns about affordability. In the meantime though, he said Knoxville leaders have taken steps to assuage homelessness, calling on faith-based organizations to step in and provide services.
"I think when you look at just about any city, any community across the nation, it tends to be the same approach. It's difficult to open up, like, systemic changes," he said.
The second issue of The Street 'X' Change is expected to be published soon. It will be printed in Morristown and he said he plans to distribute it to representatives of the paper soon after receiving copies. It costs around $500 to print an issue, he said.
He also said the paper is searching for anyone interested in working on its publication, such as writers, photographers, designers and interviewers. Anyone interested in helping create the paper can reach out online, or by emailing Young at eddie@street-xchange.org.