UNDER THE BRIDGE - About-Newspaper-Photo archives >- Word On the Street - Contact Us - Links -

Under The Bridge is a street newspaper and much more. Street newspapers are by and about the people living in poverty. Not only do they empower the vendors, they tell us in an untempered raw voice stories about poverty, social injustice and the root causes of homelessness
Street stories remind us that we are not alone and they gain strength and importance across North America as an important voice in today's increasingly corporate controlled media saturated world.

There is a serious housing shortage. As rents rise faster than income, more and more are faced with the looming threat of homelessness. By standing together as a community of renters who realize that housing is not a luxury, but a human right, we have power to demand housing security and control over tomorrow.
We began the Under The Bridge Street News NH in March 2001. After the book Under The Bridge: Stories and Poems by Manchester's Homeless was published in December 2000 we simply wanted to contnue to tell our stories. Unfortunately thought we did not lay good groundwork for such a huge endeavor. The printing of the paper is temporarily suspended so we can go back and lay foundation in a manner consistent with our fellow street newspapers. Our voice is still our voice! We continute to work on the the issues of public education through community organizing of media events such as "Gimme Shelter" and "Bonnie's Kitchen" (more on those later)
This year 2002 we attended the our first NASNA conference and found out why things aren't working the way that we hoped that they wouuld. We sort of put the cart before the horse. We have no community support, no homeless provider support(but that's not saying much as often we bump heads over advocacy issues) but most importantly we need more people to get the job done consistently.
At the NASNA Conference in Boston in June, we met with folks from 47 street newspapers from all around the United States and Canada. We learned so much and hope to continue this portion of our project.
In the meantime, this web site will hold archives of various types of work which exemplify the work printed and what we continue to do. You may still like to send us your New Hampshire story to include on our page, and we would be glad to have it.
There are a few things that are really important to us. One is public education and in that we tell stories of the life of ourselves and others experiencing homelessness in New Hampshire.
Another thing that is really important to us is education for those experiencing homelessness about their rights as people. And in that, we offer two specific pages linked here.
Cindy Carlson was on the committee which testified to the State Legislative Committee which made the "Shelter Rules" law. It is essential for people to understand that there should be a minimum standard of care for people living in State funded programs, such as nursing homes, group homes, etc. and shelters are no different. Just because a person happens to be homeless doesnt mean they lose their rights as people!