Newspaper that helps homeless is thriving

Some call the Tampa Epoch a bold experiment to help pull the city's homeless and poor out of their squalor. Others say it's a naked attempt at circumventing the city's two-month-old ban on panhandling on city streets.

Whatever the praise or criticism, the monthly publication seems to be working. It has sold 13,000 copies out of the 20,000 printed and is profitable for both the sellers and the publisher.

At last count, more than 200 people have signed up to hawk the newspaper on Tampa's busy street corners, said Tampa Epoch publisher Bill Sharpe, who said he created the publication to help the poor but also hopes to make it profitable for himself.

The number of people who turn out to sell the newspapers has been well beyond his expectations.

"We are doing very well," Sharpe said last week, a day or two before the second edition was to be printed. "We signed up our 228th vendor today. We're five weeks into the mission and I had figured that at the end of 30 days we'd have maybe 100. It's mind-blowing."

News about the opportunity to turn a buck spread fast among the community's destitute. In addition to relying on word of mouth, Sharpe handed out business cards at the Salvation Army shelter and the Trinity Café, which serves meals to the homeless.

Though he modeled the paper on one in Tennessee, its success has surpassed that by far, he said. He has been getting calls from all over, including one from the publisher of a street newspaper in London.

"I've heard from 30 publishers over the past five weeks," he said.

Tampa Epoch was created after the Tampa City Council outlawed panhandling within the city limits after Nov. 1, an ordinance that irked Sharpe, who also publishes the South Tampa Community News.

While the city ordinance criminalizes panhandling, newspaper vendors are exempt. That means newspapers can be sold to motorists stopped at intersections, as long it's not a public safety hazard.

That's the sole distribution method.

Tampa City Council Chairman Charlie Miranda said it was a strange coincidence that Tampa Epoch appeared right after the panhandling ordinance was enacted, but he added there's likely no way to close the loophole without banning all newspaper sales on the streets.

"We can't take all the papers off the street," he said. "I don't think I'm going to do that or ought to do that."

He said the market will decide the fate of Tampa Epoch; if people don't want vendors on street corners, they should not buy papers. Nor should businesses advertise in it, Miranda said, if they oppose street vending.

He predicted that would be the fate of the upstart newspaper.

"My opinion," the councilman said, "is that it's setting its sights on failure."

Mayor Bob Buckhorn is irked by Tampa Epoch.

In an email, Buckhorn said, "The community spoke loudly and clearly. They don't want panhandling to continue. This paper has allowed the panhandlers to take advantage of a loophole.

"They are trying to skirt the law, and it's just not the right thing to do. And, I hope that those who are advertising in this paper or buying it out on the streets realize that they are perpetuating a bigger problem."

Sharpe said he's hasn't heard a single complaint about his vendors since the first week, "when we had a bucket load of them."

"I've seen Mayor Buckhorn a number of times," Sharpe said. "I've chatted with him at length. I didn't bring up Tampa Epoch and he didn't bring up Tampa Epoch. We talked about other stuff."

The issues cost $1 each, and vendors get the first 25 newspapers free. Once they sell those papers and earn their first $25, they can buy more papers from Sharpe for a quarter each. Selling those papers for a dollar means a 75 cent profit for each paper.

After the first 25 papers, Sharpe makes 25 cents on every copy sold. Advertising seemed sparse in the first edition, with ads from Tampa Crossroads, a charity that helps the poor, and from a real estate agency, a medical weight loss clinic and a gym.

The second edition, which will hit the streets soon, is 25 percent bigger with a 35 percent increase in ad revenue, Sharpe said.

Among the expenses, besides printing and content, is outfitting vendors with lime-green reflective vests, bright blue T-shirts, identification cards and signs. "It costs us about $30 to outfit a vendor," he said.

Some vendors return from their corners with tales of generosity, he said.

This week, he said, "One fellow said he was at a corner and a law enforcement officer pulled up with his headlights flashing. The officer got out of the car, and the vendor was thinking he was about to be hassled. The cop gave him $20."

Recently, a woman in a Bentley that stopped at a traffic light handed another vendor a $100 bill, Sharpe said.

"We had another fellow downtown who was asked how many papers he had," which was about a dozen, Sharpe said, "and the man took the papers and gave the vendor $100."

Bob Friend said he isn't getting rich selling Tampa Epoch at the corner of West Kennedy Boulevard and Armenia Avenue.

"I'm making enough to get everything I need," said the 53-year-old man, who has been homeless since April. "Groceries, mouthwash, things like that."

He has been selling the newspaper since it first hit the streets five weeks ago, he said. He panhandled before that.

"I was flying a sign before they outlawed that," he said. This is better, he said, because it gives the newspaper buyers something for their donation.

"It's a hand up," he said, "not a handout."