VENDOR SPOTLIGHT

Ace finds home in Nashville

By Hannah Herner

Contributor vendor Ace has lots of stories to tell of his own reality in his 33 years of life.

He came to Nashville in May of 2021. He says he’s lived in every state except for South Dakota and Hawaii. The last place he lived was Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He said he lost his job there, working to make an income through the stock market.

“I came over to Nashville because one time passing through here I noticed that there was a lot more pretty people. They were a lot more respectful,” he says. “They treat people nice and generally just the fact that everyone cares. And I can wake up every day and see pretty people everywhere.”

Even though he hasn’t been here long, he says Nashville is his favorite of all the places he’s lived.

“When I first got on the airplane, I felt comfortable. So I decided to go on one plane to the next and go all over the United States. Coming here is the first place on the ground where I actually feel at home,” he says. “I go from one state to the next uprooting my life and taking everything I own and starting over. And so far I've done great. Doesn't matter how many times you start over, I always end up doing good. And this state actually has been the best as far as resources. And mainly because of The Contributor paper the people that work with that.”

Ace tells of a difficult childhood — he says his dad took him and his sister away from his mom at a young age. As a result he didn’t have a relationship with his mother until he was 17. He had trouble making friends, too.

“That's why I'm so good with programming. I literally made my friends,” he says.

Ace talks about his former professions in computer programming and advertising, and says he wants to get a computer to get back into those fields. He says he wants to build a “multi-billion dollar advertising business” and claims his last computer crashed because he was hacking into things he shouldn’t.

He brings his entrepreneurial mindset to The Contributor, often suggesting things to help sell the paper easier. Like a contraption to help hold more papers in the air at one time, better signage, or a kiosk at a hotel or airport.

“Right now it's kind of hard being a programmer with no computer. So I think that selling the paper has been good, I believe in selling this paper because while we take people that are down and out and you help them get back on their feet, and even those that don't get back on your feet, you help make sure that they have enough resources to survive,” Ace says.

He first came to the downtown office for a boxed meal, but ended up signing up to sell the paper, and got registered for food stamps with the help of The Contributor’s housing navigation team.

“I'd seen people standing in line. And I was like, ‘man, I'm hungry.’ So I came over here. And I'm like, ‘hey, these people have a lot of resources.’ It was cool because I got food stamps through this place. I didn't even know how to do food stamps or where to go,” he says.

Shelby and 5th Avenue in East Nashville is Ace’s favorite spot to sell, and he’s quickly upped the number of papers he can sell at one time. He says it’s helpful to have The Contributor as a documented source of income to help him get housing without having to put extra money down. When asked about the secret to success at selling the paper, he said: “Easy, treat it like a job. It is a job. A lot of people think that you're going out there and it's the same as holding a sign. Well, it's not, because you're not writing what's on there you're going out and selling information about what's going on. It's not your stories you’re selling, it’s a bunch of different people's stories.”