Faces of Del Ray: Wendell Williams

Wendell Williams is always the first person to greet me as I arrive at the on Saturday mornings.

“Would you like to buy a newspaper?” he asks.

His request is unobtrusive and his politeness sincere.

I usually buy a newspaper, but this Saturday I introduce myself and ask him his name. It’s a quiet day at the market, and so we chat. I learn that he has a daughter in college in Texas. She’s doing well in school. They Skype at the library and talk on the phone when they can.

Wendell is a Street Sense newspaper vendor, and—for me—he is as much a part of the Del Ray Farmers’ Market as Vera’s Bakery or the Dressed Up Nut.

Street Sense is a biweekly newspaper based out of Washington, D.C., covering news impacting homeless people. The newspaper offers job opportunities for people experiencing homelessness; they are hired as vendors to sell the newspaper throughout the D.C. metro area.

Wendell is vendor No. 64. Each Saturday morning, he wakes up at 6 a.m. to catch the bus and make it to the market by 8 a.m. Armed with a couple hundred copies of the paper in his messenger bag and a neon-yellow vest with the words Street Sense emblazoned on the back, Wendell stands at the Oxford Avenue entrance until the market closes. On a quiet day, he sells about 60 papers. On a busy day, like those in spring time and autumn when it seems all of Del Ray is at the market, he often sells out of papers.

The newspaper is sold for $1; 35 percent goes back to Street Sense operations, and the rest goes directly to the vendor.

This particular Saturday, as the farmers market begins to close up, Wendell and I walk down to to grab a sandwich. He is unashamed to tell me about his life experiences and how he got to the Del Ray Farmers’ Market.

A District native, Wendell attended what is now the University of the District of Columbia. He worked for 26 years in broadcast sales and marketing. But after receiving a mental health diagnoses in 1989, Wendell’s life changed.

“It affected my ego. ... Everything I had been taught as a man,” he says to me over a tuna sandwich and a coke. He tells me how he spent the next years wandering around the country, living on and off the street for more than 10 years.

But because of a promise of a McDonald’s lunch while he was in Cincinnati, Wendell became involved with street newspapers. A man named Donald Whitehead, the first formerly homeless person to head a national organization for homeless people, asked Wendell if he would sell street newspapers at a stand downtown. Mr. Whitehead became Wendell’s mentor, and Wendell eventually found himself heading back home where he became involved with Street Sense.

At our table in Caboose Cafe, Wendell speaks with great intelligence and poise.

“I exist today because of the kindness of other people, often strangers, who have decided to get involved in my life,” he tells me. “Donald Whitehead is one of them.”

He brings up is daughter again.

“She knows my whole life story, and she still chooses to be a part of my support system," he says. "People should never underestimate the power of the love of a child.”

Wendell tells me that he is determined to achieve self-sufficiency.

“I’ve learned that wherever you go, you bring yourself and you bring your own issues. I know now there is no shortcut to self-sufficiency. But I am going boldly where I haven’t gone before,” Wendell says.

He found a shelter in June last year. In December, he was accepted into a program through an organization in Alexandria that will provide him a place to stay for up to two years while he gets on his feet. During the week, he works delivering materials as a community outreach worker. His position as a Street Sense vendor on Saturday mornings provides him with income to supplement the money he makes throughout the week.  

And it provides him stability.

“Street Sense has retrained me as a worker, and it has motivated me to go out and work,” he says.

He shares with me how he has worked on his resume and is trying to find employment. Ultimately, he would like to work as a peer specialist, a person who helps other individuals who have faced similar life experiences.

Wendell has great affection for the Del Ray community.

“I look forward to [selling papers at the farmers market] every week,” he says. “There is a core group of people that buy the paper each week. They keep me coming out there. I look forward to seeing them. I may not know their names, but I know their faces. And it’s good to see familiar faces around town.”

I ask him how he stays motivated in his goal toward self-sufficiency.

“Take it day by day,” he says. “When I think of all the obstacles still left to overcome, it’s hard. But I have to think ‘day-by-day.’”

Do you know someone in Del Ray with an interesting story? Email me at jessica.mancari[AT]gmail[DOT]com.