On a cold Sunday morning in Washington, throngs of people amble from stall to stall at the Dupont Circle farmers market. They wear thick sweaters and Patagonia jackets. Accompanied by their children and golden retrievers, they drink carrot juice and coffee, and tote acorn squash and cartons of free-range eggs.
In the middle of it all sits Aida Peery, a slight woman wearing a beanie and corduroys. For about a decade, the 69-year-old has come to the market to convince shoppers buying organic food to also buy what she’s selling: the latest edition of Street Sense, the local newspaper that covers homelessness and inequality.
“Good morning. Help support to end homelessness,” Peery calls out in a lilting voice. “Newest edition of Street Sense media. Three dollars suggested donation.”
The orange Street Sense smock she wears makes her hard to miss. Some people nod or smile, but most walk past her as if she isn’t there.
Peery started selling Street Sense to make money when she became homeless over a decade ago and was living in a shelter. Back then, the rejection from passersby was hard, and she considered quitting. “I wanted to hang this mess up,” she says. But now she’s used to the indifference.
Still, she prays that some will buy copies, so she can make the small income she relies on for food and holiday gifts for her grandchildren. “I’ve got to sell as many as I can,” Peery says. “Angels, please get these people to dig in their pockets because I need some money today.”
Peery never expected to be homeless. Raised in Chicago, she was a teenager when she got her first job at a doughnut shop.
After moving to Washington about two decades ago, Peery returned to school because she was tired of living paycheck to paycheck. She earned a bachelor’s degree in computer networking and a master’s in information systems from Strayer University. She hoped a temporary position in information systems engineering at the Defense Department would become permanent, but she says she lost the job after failing to receive a security clearance.
Expenses accumulated. Peery struggled to find a job. She became homeless. “It could happen to anyone,” she says.
Founded in 2003, Street Sense aims to end homelessness. It publishes a biweekly newspaper about issues facing the region’s unhoused community; Peery has written dozens of articles. Under a “street paper” model, people who have experienced homelessness sell the publication, which they buy for 50 cents and sell for $3. About 110 vendors can choose where they want to sell.
Peery now lives in her own apartment through a program that provides housing to people who are chronically homeless, and since 2019 she has worked part-time at Street Sense helping run the vendor program. Selling papers has gotten harder with age. “I’m old, old, old, and I’m getting tired, tired, tired.”
“I love this job,” she says. “But I’m just getting tired.”
At the market, Peery is armed against the chill with a jacket and Ugg boots. She sells no matter the weather.
“If you need that money, you got to make that money,” she says. People tend to be more generous when she sells in the rain or snow.
Many of her customers at the market have been buying from her for about as long as she’s been selling. From her perch on the sidewalk, Peery has witnessed her customers’ expanding lives: They’ve married, had kids, sent their children to college, become grandparents.
“It’s an awesome feeling. It’s really special,” Peery says. “There’s a lot of special people in my heart.”
“We love her because we know all about her story,” says Shelly Porges, who gives Peery $20.
“It’s an unusual friendship, but I feel like Aida and I are friends,” says Dan Mauer, who’s been buying Street Sense from Peery since before his marriage and child. They chat about Mauer’s child and Peery’s discovery of canned succotash. “I was shocked!” she says, and they laugh.
Peery knows several farmers market vendors; some give her free or discounted food. After a couple hours, she takes a break to fetch sweet potatoes, ginger, cinnamon buns. The cheese vendor gives her ricotta.
At 1:30 p.m., a clanging cowbell means the market has closed. Peery packs her groceries into her pushcart and gingerly places her leftover newspapers on top. “I do a money dance,” she says with a shimmy, happy with the $86 she made.
The post At a farmers market, news on the homeless, hawked by a woman who lived it appeared first on Washington Post.
