Why San Francisco’s Journalists Are Investigating Homelessness

Mother Jones joins dozens of media outlets to look at our city’s biggest problem—and possible solutions.

A woman sits in front of a tent under San Francisco's Central Freeway in March, after the city began clearing out homeless people who had been camping in the area. AP Photo/Ben Margot

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This Wednesday, June 29, Mother Jones will join dozens of Bay Area news and media organizations to begin publishing and airing an ongoing series of stories on homelessness in San Francisco. This push is part of the SF Homeless Project, a recently launched effort whose goals are detailed in the open letter below. Stay tuned as we explore the state of homelessness in our city, as well as its history, causes, and potential solutions.

 

To the city and people of San Francisco:

Like you, we are frustrated, confused, and dismayed by the seemingly intractable problem of homelessness in our city. Like you, we want answers—and change.

We see the misery around us—the 6,600 or more people who live on the streets of San Francisco—and we sense it is worsening. We feel for the people who live in doorways and under freeways, and for the countless others who teeter on the edge of eviction. We empathize with the EMTs, the nurses and doctors, the social workers, and the police. They are on the front lines of this ongoing human catastrophe.

SF Homless Project

Numerous noble, well-intentioned efforts by both public and private entities have surfaced over the decades, yet the problem persists. It is a situation that would disgrace the government of any city. But in the technological and progressive capital of the nation, it is unconscionable.

So beginning today, more than 70 media organizations are taking the unprecedented step of working together to focus attention on this crucial issue.

We will pool our resources—reporting, data analysis, photojournalism, video, websites—and starting Wednesday, June 29, will publish, broadcast, and share a series of stories across all of our outlets. We intend to explore possible solutions, their costs, and viability.

Fundamentally, we are driven by the desire to stop calling what we see on our streets the new normal.

Though this is a united effort, we do not claim to speak with one voice. There are many lenses through which the issue of homelessness can be viewed. However, we do not intend to let a desire for the perfect solution become the enemy of the good. We want to inspire and incite each other as much as we want to prod city and civic leaders.

Fundamentally, we are driven by the desire to stop calling what we see on our streets the new normal. Frustration and resignation are not a healthy psyche for a city.

Our aim is to provide you with the necessary information and potential options to put San Francisco on a better path. Then it will be up to all of us—citizens, activists, public and private agencies, politicians—to work together to get there.

 

Signed,

The SF Homeless Project

@bayareahomeless    |   facebook.com/sfhomelessproject

 

Mother Jones and its partners:

48 Hills

AJ+

AlterNet.org

Bay Area Reporter

Business Insider

BuzzFeed News

CALmatters

Castro Valley Matters

Central City Extra

CityLab

Commonwealth Club

Cor Media

East Bay Times

El Tecolote

Fortune

Fusion

Golden Gate Xpress

Google News Lab

HATCH Beat

Hoodline

Inc.

Ingleside-Excelsior Light

ITVS/OVEE

KALW

KGO 810

KGO-TV/ABC7

KKSF Talk 910

KNTV

KPIX-TV

KQED

KRON4-TV

KTVU-TV

Laney Tower

Marina Times

Mashable

Medium

Micro-documentaries

Mid-Market News

Mission Local

New America Media

Pop-Up Magazine

Renaissance Journalism

Richmond Review

Ripple News

San Francisco Business Times

San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco Examiner

San Francisco magazine

San Francisco Neighborhood Newspaper Association

San Francisco Public Press

SF Weekly

SFGATE

SFist

Sing Tao Daily

Stories Behind the Fog

Sunset Beacon

TechCrunch

Telemundo 48 KSTS

The California Sunday Magazine

The Castro Courier

The Mercury News

The Potrero View

Timeline

Univision 14 KDTV

Wear Your Voice

West Portal Monthly

World Journal

Youth Radio

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AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

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