"A New Way Home"

Storytelling CATEGORY — SHOWCASE certificate of merit

KERA North Texas Public Broadcasting
Contributors: Christopher Connelly and Yfat Yossifor

10/02/2024

Reporting for this series utilized multiple tools and platforms including audio, photography, video stories in broadcast radio and digital formats and social media. This was an in-depth effort from KERA journalists Christopher Connelly and Yfat Yossifor spent almost a year researching on a new way to combat homeless. and the resulting stories were published and promoted throughout October. The content was particularly compelling as it reported on approaches that met with success in addressing complex issues, and the last story wrapped with the journalists talking about what happens next. Christopher Connelly has been the lead reporter on KERA’s award-winning One Crisis Away https://www.keranews.org/one-crisis- away series which prepared him well to lead this series as well.

THE SERIES

Dallas has seen a drop in homelessness, thanks to a new strategy focused on moving people from encampments into long-term housing. KERA News journalists Christopher Connelly and Yfat Yossifor spent almost a year reporting on a homeless encampment under an East Dallas overpass as it was closed and its residents moved into long-term housing. And they shared what they discovered in a multiple-part multimedia series called “A New Way Home”

Earlier approaches to encampment closure largely focused on clearing and fencing off areas in which unhoused people gathered and lived. This often left residents traumatized, worse off, and with nowhere to go but another encampment. They're sharing what they discovered on this new process as it played out at the East Dallas encampment from start to finish. They stayed in contact with several people in the encampment, as well as the outreach workers who put in long hours to build trust and break down barriers.

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Submitted by Amy Hinojosa.