KPCC, KCRW & SoCal News Group to swarm homeless on Wednesday

Recently in the LA fashion district. Photo: LA Observed.

When the San Francisco Bay Area news media flood the zone with homeless coverage on Wednesday, some Los Angeles area media outlets will also join in. I'm told that public radio stations KCRW and KPCC and the Southern California News Group newspapers will all run homeless coverage on Wednesday, June 29.

That's the day when about 70 media organizations in the San Francisco area, including TV, radio, web and print, will report on the homeless problem there.

In the Los Angeles area, says KCRW program director Gary Scott, "the goal is to concentrate the coverage we all do on a regular basis looking at the problem of homelessness. The project in San Francisco gave us a chance to work together, something we don't often do, to put an exclamation point on the fact that we aren't just covering this stuff to bring people frustrating facts but to truly inform them."

I don't know which other LA news orgs were asked to take part.

Up north, the SF Homeless Project released a letter to the city informing readers, listeners and watchers about what's up. The effort was led by San Francisco Chronicle editor in chief Audrey Cooper and KQED. When I posted about it in May, the effort had about 30 participants. The list has grown.

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.

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.

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

Participants:
San Francisco Chronicle
SFGATE
KQED
The California Sunday Magazine
Pop-Up Magazine
KRON4-TV
The Potrero View
San Francisco Examiner
San Francisco Public Press
Renaissance Journalism
Hoodline
San Francisco Business Times
Sing Tao Daily
Medium
Marina Times
The Castro Courier
Mid-Market News
KALW
Mission Local
KGO-TV/ABC7
Bay Area Reporter
KTVU-TV
San Francisco magazine
BuzzFeed News
Mother Jones
Timeline
CityLab
KKSF Talk 910
SFist
Mashable
World Journal
Central City Extra
Golden Gate Xpress
KPIX-TV
The Mercury News
East Bay Times
48 Hills
New America Media
El Tecolote
Wear Your Voice
Castro Valley Matters
Youth Radio
Fortune
AJ+
Ingleside-Excelsior Light
Commonwealth Club
CALmatters
Laney Tower
Inc.
Richmond Review
Sunset Beacon
Univision 14 KDTV
West Portal Monthly
HATCH Beat
AlterNet.org
ITVS/OVEE
Ripple News
KNTV
Telemundo 48 KSTS
KGO 810
Business Insider
TechCrunch
Fusion
San Francisco Neighborhood Newspaper Association
Google News Lab
Cor Media
Stories Behind the Fog
Micro-documentaries
SF Weekly