Street Roots vendor puts down roots

Vern Hannigan credits the paper for turning his life around

Vern Hannigan is going where the weather is warmer.

Vern Hannigan has retired from his longtime gig selling Street Roots newspapers in front of Trader Joe’s on Northwest Glisan Street and plans to move to Hawaii in October.

Hannigan credits Street Roots for helping him break out of his shell, an Old Town apartment where he lived for 10 years, hardly ever leaving his block. When he got off drugs and landed an apartment located a few floors above the newspaper’s headquarters, he thought it might be widen his world … and it did.

Sitting by streams of shoppers and passersby, he said he gained social confidence, even lasting friendships with people he saw several times a week. Eventually, he reunited with two estranged brothers, one of whom was placed for adoption in infancy by his young mother.

For a detailed account of Vern’s journey, please visit his vendor profile at Street Roots.