Israel Bayer wants to get people talkingboth as they buy Street Roots and after they read it.

The bimonthly street paper, which covers issues relating to poverty, gives the homeless vendors who sell it a chance to make some money (75 cents a paper) and interact with a wide range of people.

Selling the newspaper is not just about the income from the earnings, its about self worth, Bayer says. Ultimately, the beautiful thing about this paper is its building community on street corners.

Bayer, 35, started volunteering for the nonprofit newspaper soon after it started in 1998. He has since become director, overseeing fundraising and advocacy efforts as well as the 70 volunteers who contribute articles and photos, and the nearly 100 vendors who sell the finished product.

Though he shies away from saying if he was ever homeless himself, Bayer grew up poor. Raised by a single mother in the gritty industrial town of Alton, Ill., he dropped out of high school and wandered the country for several years, working at fast-food joints and convenience stores.

He considers these jobs his first introduction to social service work.

I have worked with every kind of individual, he says, recalling the lottery junkies and people who lived on Hostess and booze who would frequent the 7-Elevens during his night shifts.

Bayer acknowledges that for years, people viewed Street Roots as a leftist rag or purchased it as an act of charity, not because they wanted to read it. But thats changed, he says, since he and managing editor Joanne Zuhl started being more selective as they chose content and began taking on more serious investigative projects.

I think people expect less from a homeless newspaper, but when you pick Street Roots up and read it, youre pleasantly surprised, he says.

Though affected by the recession, the paper is growing. It currently prints 100,000 issues per cycle and has an annual budget of $230,000, more than twice the 2007 budget of $90,000. Bayer hopes to eventually publish weekly.

Though he works hard on the big picture, Bayer tries to stay in contact with the people the paper serves. He sleeps on the streets with the vendors at least once a year and interacts with them as much as he can.

Everything about poverty and homelessness is gray and convoluted, he says. We try to be that stabilizing factor, creating a familylike environment where it doesnt matter where you came from or your past.

Bayer plans to donate his Skidmore Prize winnings to the paper.