by Street Spirit staff
He was a lifelong advocate advocate for peace, justice and the people whose voices are often left unheard
Terry Messman, the founding editor of Street Spirit, passed away on May 10, 2026 at the age of 74. His family and friends are planning a celebration of life for him later this year. We will share details when a date is confirmed.
Terry created the first issue of Street Spirit in six weeks. It was mid-January 1995 when Sally Hindman—a Quaker and homeless advocate in Oakland—approached him with the idea of using his gifts as a writer to create a street newspaper for the East Bay. The need felt urgent.
“Nearly every homeless advocate in the Bay Area was running into the same brick wall, namely the anti-homeless bias of the mainstream media,” he later wrote.
By March 1995, the inaugural issue had hit the streets, and the first cohort of Street Spirit vendors began selling it to commuters and community members across the East Bay.
Terry spent the next 23 years as Editor-in-Chief, producing at least 278 issues that covered a vast range of social and political problems. He interviewed local artists and civil rights leaders—among them Country Joe McDonald, Reverend Phil Lawson and David Hartsough. He published artwork and poetry by countless unhoused people whose work had never before been shared. And his extensive investigative reporting on malpractice at East Bay Hospital, a psychiatric facility in Richmond, forced the hospital to close its doors in 1997.
It is impossible to fully summarize Terry’s work, or to quantify his impact on the readers and contributors of Street Spirit. It is equally hard to imagine how he sustained more than two decades of filling this newspaper every month, largely as a one-man operation. But central to Terry’s legacy is his spirit. Terry was a prophetic voice in the world of homeless journalism. He was deeply guided by faith, and possessed a clarity of thought that made his writing sharp enough to get under your skin and stay a while.
“It always seemed extraordinarily strange that simply advocating for mercy and food and decent housing for the poor had become such a radical notion in America,” he wrote. “During my Street Spirit years, the Beatitudes constantly echoed in my mind. Blessed are the merciful. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice. The Beatitudes were the blueprint for my activism.”
In the years since Terry retired, many of his own words have echoed in our minds and allowed us to carry the torch of hope that has sustained this project now for 31 years.
“Blessed are the acts of mercy, solidarity and resistance,” he wrote. Blessed are those who give a damn about their brothers and sisters on the street.”
