OHIO — The Street Chronicle is a newspaper written and sold by people with lived experience of homelessness.

Twenty-five cents of each copy sold is donated to the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, and vendors get to keep whatever profit they can make after that.

Tammy Hobbs has always been very close to her daughter. She raised her children as a single mom, and their family has never had a lot of money.

Hobbs now relies on disability to pay rent and works for the Street Chronicle a few days a week to make ends meet.

“I heard about the Street Chronicle through this young lady that was out here one day,” she said. “I was shopping here in the market and I saw her and I gave her some money.”

Hobbs has been homeless a few times before, but now she’s able to afford a small apartment.

Living on disability doesn’t allow much room for luxuries in life, so she sells newspapers to help supplement her income. She said she typically gets between $2 and $7 each shift.

The Street Chronicle’s manager, Kim Goodman, is a good friend of Hobb’s and occasionally sells newspapers with her.

Goodman said she’s seen a lot of vendors come and go in her 20 years with the Chronicle.

“There’s been people over the years who started selling the paper, just to feed an addiction, but we have rules,” she said. “You have to stay sober. You cannot sell the paper under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Most people are trying to stay sober long enough to sell the paper and then they realize it’s actually nice people in the world, because a lot of people came from trauma. So, the paper connects people with nice people who are supportive, and then they learn that it’s nice people in the world.”

Not everyone who approaches vendors is nice, though. Sometimes people tell them to “get a job” or treat them with disrespect.

Both Goodman and Hobbs have friends who are experiencing homelessness.

Sometimes Hobbs will head across the street to hang out with them after her shift.

“I used to hang out here all the time with a lot of my friends. Most of them are homeless,” she said. “We used to come and hang out, you know what I’m saying? Just sit around, talk, joke. Listening to music just to pass the day by.”

Hobbs said people experiencing homelessness are still people, and it can happen to anyone.

“It could be you tomorrow,” she said. “You know what I’m saying? Nobody is ever promised tomorrow.”

She suggests picking up a copy of the paper and reading about what they’re going through before judging the unhoused community.

“Don’t talk about the homeless if you ain’t been in their shoes,” she said. “You don’t know their predicament.”

If you want to get a copy of the Street Chronicle, you can usually find vendors behind the west side market or around downtown Cleveland.