Second Wave of Coordinated Homelessness Coverage Explores Accountability and Follow Up
December 5, 2016, San Francisco, CA — It’s estimated that there are over 6,600 people living on the streets of San Francisco. Despite many efforts to alleviate the situation over the decades, the problem continues to worsen in one of the wealthiest, technologically advanced and socially progressive cities in the world. To help draw attention to the growing crisis, Bay Area and national media outlets and organizations rallied together for the SF Homeless Project. This unprecedented collaboration got underway with a single day of coordinated homelessness coverage on June 29. The partnership continues December 7, when organizations will produce a second wave of coverage focusing on accountability and follow up.
As part of the initial phase of the collaboration, KQED and The San Francisco Chronicle, which lead the effort, each produced more than a week of coverage. KQED focused on telling first-person stories to reveal the huge range of people living on our streets. KQED also looked at the issue from a regional perspective and told stories of people living on the edge of homelessness — facing housing insecurity and eviction, and living in cars and on couches.
As part of the second phase of coverage, KQED will tell the stories of college students choosing to get an education rather than pay the rent because they can’t afford to do both. Our coverage will also focus on the roots of urban homelessness in the United States and how it traces back to 1980s public policy. And we will return to people and stories we’ve reported on in the past to see how life on the streets has changed, or not. In addition, look and listen for special editions of KQED Newsroom and The California Report during the week of December 7.