Stephanie

Stephanie Green is a homeless woman who reads voraciously. That is what intrigued me most about her - she is nearly always reading - quality books, including classics, most given to her by various people who have made her acquaintance. For the last year, I have seen her at this spot nearly every day, living in front of a vacant store in SOHO, partially sheltered by overhead scaffolding. Click here for more photos. She wears jewelry and and at times I have seen her put on makeup. I had naively thought that this would be the first story I would write based entirely on a personal interview. I spoke to her on a few occasions - the first to ask if she would be willing to talk about herself and be photographed for this website - she agreed. However, the "interview" was extremely awkward and she was not as forthcoming as I had hoped. I did learn that she was from Santa Monica, California, born 2/5/1980. She has not had contact with her family. She occasionally stays in homeless shelters. I did not learn much else - how did she become homeless, does she have any hopes, does she bathe and where, does she have drug problems, do any of her belongings get stolen when she leaves them? In addition to her own efforts at collecting money, she did tell me she has a boyfriend (also homeless) who scavenges for food and money which they share. When I asked if anyone else had taken photos of her, she showed me some color printouts from pbase (an online photo site) - click here. She recently moved - I saw her in the Village on University Place. So it was time for these photos to be posted ...