Celebrating five years of One Step Away

By One Step Away Staff

One Step Away happened so fast. All we had was an idea of what it should be and the sense that we should be the change we wanted to see. So we started up without a lot of planning, just doing it, chasing an idea in our heads with what we could create with our hands, building the road as we traveled.

That was five years ago. Today it still feels like it happened at a million miles an hour; five years swept by in the blink of an eye.

Bob Fishman, then the CEO of Resources for Human Development, came across Street Sense, the street newspaper in Washington, D.C., in 2009. He returned to RHD with the notion that this was a really good idea and RHD should start publishing a street paper in Philadelphia. In a bit of serendipity, the Marketing & Communications Department at RHD was filled with people who'd worked at newspapers in their past – editors, publishers, reporters, advertising reps. We got to work right away.

Our first meeting about creating a street newspaper was in October. We were on the streets with the first issue Dec. 15. Dainette Mintz, director of the Philadelphia Office of Supportive Housing, purchased the first issue for $1.

A group of men from the Ridge Center, then the city's largest men's homeless shelter, and women from Woodstock Center, which still provides emergency shelter for women and children, formed the first editorial board. Among their tasks was to name the thing we were creating. They argued back and forth for an hour. Some of the initial suggestions, "Our Voice," and "Uncovered Issues," we kept and use today as titles for individual sections of the newspaper. But they couldn't agree on anything until one man named Gerald, grumbling about his personal battle to get out of the shelter, noted that he always seemed so close to things, but somehow still so far away. And he said: "It feels like I'm always one step away." Three or four people said: Yeah, me, too. Just one step away, so close, it's that last step that's hardest.

And someone said: That's our name. That's what we are. We're One Step Away.

In the five years since, we've helped thousands of people take that last step. One Step Away doesn't offer anything but a chance – just a chance for something better, an opportunity you can have if you want to work for it. We've seen so many people, hungry for that chance, that they work in the cold, in the heat, in the rain, in the snow. One Step Away makes people experiencing homelessness visible; our vendors self-identify as homeless – and that is a hard, hard thing.

People often walk past them, quickening their pace, don't look them in the eye, don't acknowledge them. Vendors already likely struggling with self-esteem would get beat up by that feeling. But the next day, they'd pick up that bag and go out there again. Their strength astonished us.

That year we handed out awards for our top vendors, and a man named Glen won the first one. It was just a piece of paper with a little emblem on it; we thought nothing of it. When he held it in his hands, he wept. Glen said it was the first time he'd ever won anything. It was the first time anyone told him he'd done a good job. That was the moment we realized what One Step Away could be for people – not just a means of employment (although that's a huge piece of the puzzle), but a way to help people rebuild themselves, to understand that they have value.

We had plenty of successes along the way. The first issue contained a column by a young girl named Stephanie who wrote about attending school while living in a homeless shelter, and how she kept it a secret from her classmates and teachers. A Philadelphia Inquirer reporter named Jennifer Lin was taken with Stephanie's story and featured her on the front page of the Inquirer – and immediately, the whole world changed for us.

We met Matthew Saad Muhammad, a Philly legend and Boxing Hall of Famer, later that same year. Matthew was a resident at Ridge Center. The story One Step Away did on Matthew won an International Award and garnered a ton of publicity. When Matthew got back on his feet he came back to us and worked with One Step Away as an advocate and spokesperson, hosting our annual Knock Out Homelessness fundraiser.

After he passed away this summer, every story and every obituary mentioned Matthew's work with One Step Away as a homelessness advocate, noting that his often-difficult life had an uplifting ending. We're proud to be part of his story.

Thousands of people have passed through our doors, and really, we're proud of all of them. Of the group of homeless men and women who were with us at the start, all of them – 100 percent – went on to acquire their own housing. Of course, because this is how homelessness works, there was a line of people behind them who also found themselves just one step away. And we're proud to be here for them, too. Every month there are people out there on the street corners working, using One Step Away to get housing, pay their rent, feed their kids, care for their families. For five years we've been honored to be there, helping them as they keep trying to take that last step.

One Step Away is Philadelphia's street newspaper, produced and distributed by people experiencing homelessness. The issue on the streets this month features an interview with Philadelphia native Ellish Danzy, who participated in the Homeless World Cup, an international soccer tournament, as a member of the U.S. team. Pick up a copy from your favorite vendor in a yellow vest! Reach One Step Away at osa@rhd.org.