European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 8, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Daily bundled in a Blanket a Man find warmth near a steam grate in the Eli pie in front of the White haute. Washington s Street people forced March to nowhere by Wayne Kino new York times. For several months not Long  Reagan s closest neighbor was ear Douglas Edwards or. Reagan slept inside the White House Edwards slept on the sidewalk out front. I Laid in front of that White House for eight months said Edwards.  talking with Edwards can be difficult. The words Are property enunciated the sentences Are grammatical the vocabulary glittering with erudition. But it often seems As if Edwards is an actor and someone has stuffed the scripts into a Waring blender and scrambled them before the Reading. Edwards who says he is 38 years old is one of Washington s Street people. They Are also known As transients the homeless bums panhandlers and undesirables. Uke other major american dues Washington has thousands of the homeless 6,000 to 10,000 of them at any Given Lime according to the estimate of Mitch Snyder  Newyork Katy. By contrast has an estimated 50,000. Some sleep on steam vents amid the great Public buildings of the richest nation on Earth giving a Stark visibility to their plight that is not found in other cities. But mostly they Are invisible necessarily. To survive you have to keep moving and you have to be invisible said Snyder. Who describes homelessness in America As a forced March to nowhere which is the title of a Book he wrote about the nation s homeless it was based partly on four months he intentionally spent on the Street with no bed. No Board no bathroom no place to go and no reason to go  a great number Are people who have been  or released from overcrowded mental institutions drug centers Halfway houses and the like. Homelessness is a perpetual fact of life in America say those like Snyder who Are concerned with the problem. But it sputters into the Public consciousness Only when a Steinbeck Sears the lives of the dust bowl s dispossessed on the Public conscience in a grapes of Wrath or a homeless War hero from world War .11, Jesse Carpenter freeze to death in front of the White House or More recently Harvard students petition to Cut away Metal barriers the school administration had put Over heat grills to keep transients from sleeping on them. In Washington where causes Are a cottage Industry Snyder has become an effective lobbyist for those who Uke Edwards have no place to go. As a consequence of a Well publicized skirmish Snyder interrupted the Reagan administration s plans to evict homeless people from an abandoned government building. Now a production company is making a documentary of Snyder a life starring Martin Sheen As the embattled Snyder who off the screen admits that he does not know the answer but refuses to let America ignore the question. On location at the Ellipse in front of the White House talking with a reporter while consulting with Sheen whose resemblance to him even without makeup is uncanny Snyder talked about what it was like to be homeless in the nation s capital. The main thing is to not look homeless he said. It s like it used to be if you were a Light skinned Black. You tried to pass pass for White. It s the same thing if you re homeless. You be got to pass. You Don t want them to know otherwise you re roasted off the Bench you re sitting on run out of the Library where you went to get out of the cold. But if you can pass you look of you could go in the Roy Rogers or Mcdonald s and buy a cup of Coffee and nurse it for an hour or two maybe before they figure it out and Tell you to leave. A successful homeless can go in and out of Public buildings bus stations museums you can go in the bathrooms. The bus station and the train station the guards have a reputation Lor being brutal they take people downtown they beat you up so you try to pass stay clean stay neat As you  Snyder recalls Zlotko a hungarian refugee paranoid a lot a lot Are mental cases that have been dumped a Man of erect Carriage and dog eared elegance who survived because he seemed not a bit out of place standing for hours in front of a painting at the National gallery when it was snowing outside. To preserve the pose he slept sitting up. He Learned to sleep that Way sitting up so he would t get wrinkled Snyder said. He d sleep near a dumpster behind a hotel i won t mention the hotel and he was near an exhaust fan that blew out heat in the Winter so he would t  they instinctively understand no matter How crazy they Are that if they re seen and recognized they la be harassed and have to disappear. So they just disappear they  Snyder said he had lost touch with Zlotko. For the most part those who Are visible those who huddle on steam grates Panhandle on the streets wander with their bags and Blanket through the Street Are at the end of their rope Snyder says. For every Guy you see sleeping on the grates there Are 10 others you Don t see who Are still viable still passing. When you get to the grates you Don t care anymore oddly for those who seemingly live a life of aimless wandering the rules of survival Are curiously rigid. Although some might Crouch on a steam grate or a Bench through an entire Day most of the homeless Are up Early before 6 . The police and private guards Are often tolerant until the City starts to Wake and the homeless become visible embarrassing threatening. The people Don t want to see  Snyder said. It s a matter of not wanting people to look at you. They have As their first objective a drink of water and that Means finding a Public Fountain. The next Stop is a bathroom. We d go Over to the Public bathroom at Lafayette Park you can t go just anywhere and there would be 10 or 15 others there Snyder recalled of his Days As one of the homeless. One Guy ordered some of us away from a dumpster with a gun Snyder said. He said that s my garbage you re stealing " even for those who get enough to eat in soup kitchens by scavenging or by working a few hours with a Broom the Day goes slowly. One Street Denizen spent nine months of the year in the Library of Congress writing Down every title of every Book every written the remaining three months he considered it his Job to travel every Road in America. He was a sort of idiot savant Snyder said. You could give him a Date and he could Tell you what happened on that Day a thousand years ago. He s been on the Street 12 or 15  according to Snyder a very Small percentage of the homeless spend their Days As Edwards does panhandling. He stands Ike a wooden Indian All but motionless in front of a fast food store  rigid and Palm extended until someone out of guilt or compassion or perhaps a feeling of menace presses a Coin or a Bill into it. With the matter of food thus resolved it is then a matter of keeping warm. That is no problem in warm weather in Winter to is a matter of de or death. Sleeping on a steam grate Wal kill you. Step off for an hour and the steam that has permeated your clothing turns to ice. You be got to keep dry Snyder said. You sneeze you get a cold you get a cold you get pneumonia you get pneumonia you  As frightening is frostbite. At one Point Snyder said a 17-bed medical clinic that is part of his shelter for the homeless was entirely filled with amputees. And a half dozen More were waiting for Beds. You have to have a piece of plastic Oil cloth something to keep you  he explained. If you get sick you get emergency help then go Back on the Street. Or you stay sick. Or you get better. Or you  and those who die the county keeps you for 30 Days for somebody to claim the body Snyder said. If nobody claims the body you recreated we be got the ashes of  shelter now. We be got three More on the  saturday february 1986 the stars and stripes Page 13