• Slug: BC-CNS-Shipping Container Shelter, 700 words.
• Five photos available (embed code, thumbnail, caption below).

By Ole Braatelien
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – Phoenix officials on Thursday displayed the city’s first “XWing” structure – a dwelling made from converted shipping containers – intended as another solution to shelter people experiencing homelessness.

The city of Phoenix, St. Vincent de Paul and Steel + Spark unveiled the project at the Washington Relief Shelter near downtown.

The dwelling is not intended for just anybody seeking a temporary home, however. Individual case managers at St. Vincent de Paul will refer people to the new shelter, said Marisol Saldivar, spokeswoman for the nonprofit.

“This is a next step for residents who are more independent and who have maybe expressed they would like more independent space or would feel safer behind a door,” Saldivar said.

Continue reading “‘Very personal project’: Repurposed shipping containers provide alternative shelter for those experiencing homelessness”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Gender Pioneer, 1,100 words
• Video available here
• 3 photos available (thumbnails, captions below)

By Katelyn Keenehan
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – Arizona’s Hip Historian Marshall Shore is known for his vivid storytelling, a cult-like following and expertise on the state’s history.

From his regular Arizona History Happy Hour to his ghost tours of the Valley, Shore has become a local celebrity. Part of the appeal is his study of under-represented groups and his interest in rewriting history with equity in mind.

Through the support of his followers, Shore was able to raise funds to purchase a headstone for a transgender man who was buried without one in the early 1900s.

The Greenwood Memory Lawn Mortuary & Cemetery in Phoenix opened in 1906 and holds the remains of some of the people who defined Arizona, including John T. Alsap, Phoenix’s first mayor, and William S. Hancock, who laid out the Phoenix town site, according to the Arizona Republic. It also has been the site of controversy, including a movement to remove a Confederate veterans memorial.

Continue reading “Arizona’s ‘Hip Historian’ makes impact on Arizona’s transgender history”

• Slug: BC-CNS BC-CNS Frontline Faces, 2,600 words.
• Photos and captions below.

By Cronkite News staff

Health care workers across the country have risked their lives to care for COVID-19 patients, and Cronkite News reporters teamed up with the Guardian and Kaiser Health News to tell some of the stories of those who died because of exposure to the novel coronavirus that causes the deadly disease.

The overall project was awarded the Batten Medal for Coverage of the Coronavirus Pandemic on Monday. Here are Cronkite News’ contributions to the extensive database that gathered more than 3,600 obituaries of health care workers.

Continue reading “Lost on the front lines: Health care workers in Southwest who died fighting COVID-19”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Racial Equity,1020
• 1 photo available (thumbnail, caption below)

By Chloe Jones and Anne Mickey
Howard Center for Investigative Journalism

The Department of Housing and Urban Development and leading national experts have said racial equity should be at the center of homeless responses during the COVID-19 pandemic — a recognition that people of color are disproportionately affected by both homelessness and the coronavirus. Here’s a look at the issues.

What is racial equity? 

Racial equity is not the same as racial equality. HUD addressed this distinction in June when it issued guidance to nonprofits working with homeless populations during the pandemic. Equality means treating everyone the same and ensuring they have access to the same opportunities. But with historic and structural racism, equal access doesn’t always mean equal results. Only equity addresses those differences. Continue reading “Racial equity is key to helping homeless during the pandemic”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Homeless Funding Territories,1800
• 2 photos available, thumbnails and captions available below

By Lidia Terrazas and Molly Bohannon
Howard Center for Investigative Journalism

Since the coronavirus pandemic hit Puerto Rico in March, many homeless relief organizations have been scrambling to meet the basic needs of the island’s homeless population because the majority of federal homeless aid that was allocated has not yet reached them.

Given the territory’s record of mismanaging disaster relief, homeless assistance and community development funds, fears are mounting that history may be repeating itself.

Under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act passed in March, Puerto Rico was entitled to just over $39 million to help protect and shelter its homeless population during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nearly 70% of that total, or some $27 million, is supposed to be earmarked for smaller or rural communities, where a substantial portion of islanders are homeless.

Puerto Rico officials didn’t tap the majority of their CARES Act funding until Oct. 27, according to an analysis of government spending data by the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism. That same month, territory leaders met with HUD officials concerned about Puerto Rico’s ability to successfully manage the unprecedented amount of aid. The $4 billion in homeless aid included in the CARES Act is about 14 times greater than the amount in last year’s Emergency Solutions Grants program. Grant recipients must have a HUD-approved use plan before accessing any of the aid money.

Continue reading “Puerto Rico’s nonprofits fear history repeating itself in homeless aid”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Homeless Funding – Houston, San Diego, 3000
• 9 photos available (thumbnails and captions available below)
• 1 data visualization available here

By Audrey Jensen, Jill Ryan, Chloe Jones and Madeline Ackley
Howard Center for Investigative Journalism

HOUSTON — Nearly a decade ago, two U.S. cities with large homeless populations tried to solve their problem by adopting a strategy that prioritized giving people housing and help over temporary shelter.

But Houston and San Diego took fundamentally different approaches to implementing that strategy, known as Housing First. Houston revamped its entire system to get more people into housing quickly, and it cut homelessness by more than half. San Diego attempted a series of one-off projects but was unable to expand the lessons learned and saw far fewer reductions in homelessness.

Despite those outcomes, the cities are again charting different paths in deciding how to use millions in taxpayer money that Congress approved to care for the homeless as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act.

Each city has been allocated more than $26 million in federal emergency funds to protect and house their homeless populations, among the most vulnerable to the coronavirus. In keeping with Housing First, Houston is focusing much of its unprecedented amount of aid on permanent housing and homeless prevention. San Diego, with its chronic shortage of affordable housing, is prioritizing temporary shelters.

Continue reading “Two cities tried to fix homelessness, only one succeeded”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Homeless Funding – Twin Cities, 2400
• 7 photos available (thumbnails and captions available below)
• 4 data visualizations available (embed codes below)

By Helen Wieffering, Agya K. Aning and Helena Wegner
Howard Center for Investigative Journalism

ST. PAUL, Minnesota – In two rooms in separate cities, people say their names. Around a circle of chairs and tables, they gather weekly to strategize leaving the streets behind. All have been homeless before or are living on the brink.

The conversation is more urgent, as a pandemic winter sets in. And frustration is building with public leaders who they feel have not done enough to help.

The Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, though similar in many ways, have taken opposite approaches to tapping the largest homeless aid package in American history.

Congress included $4 billion for emergency homeless aid in its pandemic relief bill last spring. Officials in Minneapolis and surrounding Hennepin County moved quickly to use the $17.5 million granted them under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act. But St. Paul and surrounding Ramsey County officials have yet to touch the nearly $8 million in homeless funding they were allocated. As of early December, they had not even finalized plans for how the money would be used.

Continue reading “Federal aid divides homeless in the Twin Cities”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Homeless Funding Formula,2400
• 2 photos available (thumbnails and captions available below)
• Two graphic available (embed codes below)

By Andy Blye and Austin Fast
Howard Center for Investigative Journalism

Eric Smith will finally have a place to call home after years of sleeping in his car and on his aunt’s sofa because of an obscure change in how the federal government calculates homeless aid.

For decades, Washington has determined how much taxpayer money to give states, counties and cities for their homeless residents, using a formula that actually has nothing to do with homelessness. But the COVID-19 pandemic, and its billions in emergency aid, forced lawmakers to rework the old, politically popular homeless formula, which spread the wealth regardless of need.

In Los Angeles, the change has meant nearly $120 million more in aid and a chance for Smith and thousands like him to fundamentally change their lives. Continue reading “Calculating the impact of HUD’s homeless formulas”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Homeless Funding Communities,3300
• 6 photos available, thumbnails and captions available below
• Time-lapse video available, embed code available at bottom of story

By Shaena Montanari and Natalie Walters
Howard Center for Investigative Journalism

Winter in Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge is wet and freezing, a life-threatening situation for the area’s homeless residents even without a pandemic. Darcy Long-Curtiss understands that better than most.

The shelter that normally provided nighttime refuge was closed because of COVID-19, and federal aid money meant to help protect homeless people from the pandemic came late and with confusing restrictions. By the time Long-Curtiss got permission to erect temporary shelters purchased with her community’s share of the funding, temperatures were already dipping below freezing. She had just one week to ready the site and make potentially life-and-death decisions.

“I have to find out who doesn’t have any other option, who would be most likely to have frostbite or die if they didn’t get a shelter and then go from there,” said Long-Curtiss, a councilwoman in The Dalles, a city of about 16,000 at the eastern edge of the gorge. “But those are incredibly difficult decisions to make when you know everybody personally.”

The challenge facing the small homeless community in The Dalles is a microcosm of the difficulty faced by homeless service providers nationwide as they rush against winter to figure how to use the largest influx of homeless aid in American history.

Continue reading “Communities struggle to make best use of COVID homeless aid”