Author: Covering Poverty

Why cover disability?

• The poverty rate for adults with disabilities is more than twice the rate of adults with no disability. 

• The relationship between poverty and disability is complicated. People with disabilities are more likely to become impoverished, and people living in poverty are more likely to have or acquire a disability. There are nuances in this relationship, and it’s important to begin educating yourself when beginning your reporting.

• Stereotypes about people with disabilities persist in our media. You can best serve the community you’re writing about by taking care to avoid stereotypes and misconceptions in your reporting.

Research guide

Here’s a list of databases, reports and studies, institutions and guidance from news organizations to help you form the right questions in your reporting. 

If you’re feeling stuck, use the resources below to help answer these questions. They might help you get started on a story or expand on an idea about disability and poverty.

• How many Americans have disabilities?
• How is the federal government protecting people with disabilities?
• What language should I use when reporting on people with disabilities?
• How do I avoid stereotyping or continuing bias in my stories about people with disabilities?
• Are there any recommendations or guides for reporting on people with disabilities?
• What financial challenges affect people with disabilities?
• How does poverty affect people with disabilities? Here is an exemplar story that resulted from asking that question: Children with Developmental Disabilities in Georgia Struggle to Get Needed Care

Essential Reports

The Extra Costs of Living with a Disability in the U.S. — Resetting the Policy Table. By the National Disability Institute, in partnership with the Stony Brook University School of Social Welfare and the Tennessee College of Social Work.

This research finds that a household containing an adult with a disability that limits their ability to work requires, on average, 28% more income to obtain the same standard of living as a similar household without a member with a disability. This report also examines what the U.S. is currently doing to address these extra costs and names policy implications this research might have.

Financial Inequality: Disability, Race and Poverty in America. By the National Disability Institute. Using data from the 2015 American Community Survey, this report explores the relationship between disability and race, examining the poverty rates, level of education and employment percentages among people with disabilities.

The Financial Challenges of Disability. By the National Disability Institute. This graphic shows some of the financial realities of people with disabilities, and points to the need for solutions that advance financial stability for people with disabilities.

Has the Promise Been Kept? Federal Enforcement of Disability Rights Laws (Part 1 & Part 2). These reports examine whether federal agencies tasked with enforcing the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a law which prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability, have done so adequately. These reports assess how federal agencies have implemented and enforced the ADA. 

Guidance for News Coverage

Disability Language Style Guide from the National Center on Disability and Journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. 

This style guide covers dozens of words and terms commonly used when referring to disability, and provides guidance on which terms to avoid and which terms are acceptable in news coverage.

Media Guides List from the National Center on Disability and Journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. 

This page provides links to guides from numerous organizations about effective ways to talk about disability in news coverage. Guides come from The Carter Center, the National Disability Rights Network and more.

For Ukraine — and all news coverage — journalists need to pay attention to word choices. From Poynter.

Through a broad examination of word choice, this piece shows how reporting and word choice can either inspire compassion or “lead to othering by reinforcing unconscious bias.” Understanding and accepting this idea is especially necessary in coverage of people with disabilities.

Disability Matters: A toolkit for newsrooms to better serve the disability community from the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri. 

This toolkit, created in 2022, was produced by Hannah Wise of The New York Times ​​”as a starting point for journalists or news organizations looking to improve coverage of disability and the accessibility of news products.” Wise notes that more than 61 million Americans live with disabilities and “newsrooms are woefully unprepared to produce journalism that represents the people that make up this community and their needs.” She created a living document (it’s open for community comments), as she describes it, focused on improving coverage and making journalism more accessible.

How to Report With Care on Disability. From The New York Times.

This piece, written by The New York Times’ inaugural disability reporting fellow, addresses how one of the best ways to improve disability reporting is to talk to more disabled people. Author Amanda Morris shares the ways she reports on disabilities in non problematic ways, such as picking stories that are actually newsworthy and serve disabled audiences.

From the Associated Press Stylebook: deaf, Deaf, hard of hearing

The Associated Press changed its style guide in 2022 to capitalize the ‘d’ in Deaf in some cases. From the Associated Press Stylebook newsletter: “Many deaf people who use sign language have a deeply ingrained sense of culture and community built around the experience of deafness and sign language, and use the uppercase form Deaf to signify that culture. The uppercase is acceptable, if used by the person or group, in descriptions such as the cultural Deaf community, Deaf education, Deaf culture, etc.” When using AP Style, deaf should still be lower case when referring to the audiological condition of total or major hearing loss, when relevant to the story.

How to Write About Disability and Poverty: Tips from NPR’s Joe Shapiro

Joe Shapiro from NPR shared his personal tips on how to report on disability and its intersection with poverty with Covering Poverty reporter Jacqueline GaNun. Shapiro stressed the importance of reporting on disability and has reported on the topic for more than 20 years.

Tips for Covering Health and Disability: An Interview with Author Ryan Prior

Ryan Prior has been nationally recognized for his writing on disability, health and chronic illness. He spent the last few years covering COVID-19 for CNN, especially its intersection with disability. That coverage grew into a book called “The Long Haul,” which is about long COVID-19, the myriad lingering health effects people have after a coronavirus infection. As a guest on “The Lead” podcast, Prior discussed how to find compelling health stories and write about disability.

Databases

American Community Survey

A part of the U.S. Census Bureau, the American Community Survey collects nationwide data every year on the social, economic, and housing characteristics. You can see specific data about disability in the United States, including the percentage of people with disabilities among people surveyed.  

Institutions

National Council on Disability. This council is an independent federal agency that advises the president, Congress, and other federal agencies regarding policies, programs and practices that affect people with disabilities. The council regularly releases reports and recommendations about policies for people with disabilities, which might serve as a starting point to better understand how the federal government makes laws to protect people with disabilities.

National Disability Institute. This institute aims to empower people with disabilities for a better financial future, with multiple projects and programs centered around that goal. This institute also releases reports which examine the financial status and financial literacy of people with disabilities.

National Center on Disability and Journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. This center provides an abundance of resources for reporting on disability, including a style guide, a reporting guide, and a writing and editing guide.

International Social Role Valorization Association. Social Role Valorization (SRV) is a “set of ideas useful for making positive change in the lives of people disadvantaged because of their status in society.” The International Social Role Valorization Association aims to promote SRV development, education and leadership, and the website has useful articles on how SRV can be applied to support people with disabilities.

---

Kyra Posey is a graduate student studying journalism at the University of Georgia. 

Read how reporter William Newlin wrote these pieces for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Need rental assistance? These 3 routes are available for metro Atlantans

Rental market boom hinders housing nonprofits

Before writing Need rental assistance? These 3 routes are available for metro Atlantans for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, I already had an idea where the story would go. The AJC had written several stories chronicling Georgia’s disbursal of rental assistance money received through federal relief efforts. Progress was slow, but the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, the City of Atlanta and several metro Atlanta counties had provided tens of millions of dollars in rental assistance over the past two years. 

Still, according to the United Way of Greater Atlanta, the most-searched service on its 2-1-1 nonprofit referral website was rental assistance. Clearly, people were still seeking help, and this piece was meant to be an updated resource guide to help readers find it. So, I tried to take a practical approach to reporting and writing the story.

I got in touch with the Department of Community Affairs, which oversees state-wide distribution of federal rental assistance funds. I received contextual information about the amount of money still available, average wait times to receive assistance, and I confirmed the criteria and documents the state requires from applicants. It was important to spell out all the requirements in the story so it would be a comprehensive resource. Otherwise, people might spend time gathering information and applying for assistance when they aren’t eligible. 

Since metro Atlanta counties directly received federal funds, I looked through county websites to see which still operated rental assistance programs and how people can access them. We included plenty of links and phone numbers to help direct readers to the resources listed. Aside from government agencies, past reporting had shown me that nonprofits were another key source for assistance.

The United Way and Impact46, a nonprofit in Lawrenceville, taught me about the limitations different organizations face in distributing rental assistance. Fraud was a concern for the government and nonprofits alike, which in part explains the extensive documentation requirements. Nonprofits providing assistance through a federal Emergency Solutions Grant, such as Impact46, have more restrictions in place than those using donations or other types of funding. I also spoke with a past source who directs a food pantry and financial assistance nonprofit in DeKalb County to better understand trends in need from his perspective and the relative efficiency of different groups in providing assistance. Speaking on background let me sort through the remaining questions I had in a more casual setting, and our conversation helped untangle the complicated web of government and non-government assistance options.

My reporting resulted in a list of resources and recommendations about how to find help paying rent, mortgages and utilities in the metro area. I tried to write the story with accessibility in mind, knowing that style wasn’t as important as substance and clarity. The biggest lesson I learned was that receiving help requires time and a lot of paperwork. It’s important to learn what’s required before applying to prevent as many potential delays as possible.

I carved out a beat within the Covering Poverty space, focusing mostly on nonprofit groups. I followed what I learned up with the AJC piece, Rental market boom hinders housing nonprofits. Covering Poverty’s housing beat guide provides resources in terms of datasets and questions to consider. For that story, I dug into data about fair market rents and interviewed individuals with housing nonprofits in metro Atlanta to focus on the current impact and what is possibly to come.

William Newlin is a graduate student at the University of Georgia with work appearing in Georgia Health News, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The Red & Black.

Sean Keenan’s work can be found in The New York Times, Atlanta Magazine, The Daily Beast and Vice — just to name a few places. Sean is a freelance reporter and he also covers housing for the Atlanta Civic Circle. He joined The Lead podcast, another project with the Cox Institute for Journalism Innovation, Management, and Leadership to talk about why housing reporting is essential, the importance of holding public officials accountable, balancing accountability with objectivity and what drives him to keep covering housing. 

Sean Keenan also shared his insights on covering evictions for this piece on our website: How to Cover Evictions, and you can find more information about covering the intersection of housing and poverty with our Housing Beat Guide.

Kyra Posey is a graduate student studying journalism at the University of Georgia. 

Read how reporters Allison Caso and Brieanna Smith wrote this feature for the Athens Banner-Herald: Pantries at Athens area colleges, student centers grow to combat hunger. Written by Allison Caso.

This article aimed to discuss the prevalent and often overlooked issue of student food insecurity and provide resources for students in Athens-Clarke County. 

We expanded our focus past just the University of Georgia’s campus and researched the University of North Georgia’s Oconee Campus, Athens Technical College and campus ministry groups. 

We observed several of the food pantries to better understand how they operate and take appropriate photographs. Brieanna Smith said this observation method was new to her and she enjoyed the hands-on approach. Something I have noticed through doing in-person observation is the learning curve of the group I’m working with and myself. Often the organization is not used to during interviews or having reporters come and observe and vice versa. Therefore, reporters should go in with a short list and game plan of what they need and want to accomplish at the organization to put both parties at ease. 

This article also taught us about obstacles with obtaining information due to organization’s policies and protection of people’s information. We had to continually follow up and do several rounds of iterations to make sure we included all the necessary information. We also learned to put the newest and most relevant information at the beginning. Initially, we primarily focused on college food pantries that have been functional for several years, but we then switched the focus to the newer Presbyterian Student Center Food Pantry to make it most informational to our readers. 

Learn more about food insecurity on college campus and how to cover it here: 

http://coveringpoverty.uga.edu/2020/11/28/the-pandemic-and-poverty/

The Hope Center’s report: #REALCOLLEGE 2021: Basic Needs Insecurity During the Ongoing Pandemic

From the Education Data Initiative: Average Cost of Food per Month for a College Student

Read how reporters Allison Caso, Brieanna Smith and Foster Steinbeck wrote this service piece for the Athens Banner-Herald: Help for those in Northeast Georgia: Where to find shelters, washrooms and food pantries. Written by Allison Caso.

The goal of this project was to provide an extensive list of resources available to food and shelter insecure residents in Athens-Clarke County. We also wanted to factor in COVID-19 and how it affected these populations in Athens. To gain background information we looked at data from the U.S. Census Bureau, The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and several articles discussing the COVID-19 in relation to Athens-Clarke County. 

This article was an extensive project that involved researching and calling various locations around Athens to gain information about programs offered.  This type of project was different that other articles because it relied less on a few in-depth interviews, and the information came from a wide variety of shorter confirmation phone calls. We worked through several iterations of this article, trying to figure out the best way to present the information to make it available and useful. This process led to the suggestion of including nearby bus lines, so people had a way to get to the organizations listed.

One challenge I experienced in working on this article was finding the balance of how much information to include about each organization. Additionally, some services at certain organizations changed as we continued working on the article, and we had to continuously update and make sure the information we had was up to date.

Brieanna Smith said working on this article forced her to “step into other people’s shoes to report on this,” and ask what the population needed to know. She also brainstormed ways to make it accessible offline.  

Foster Steinbeck visited Timothy Baptist Food Bank several times and found several other sources through going in person. He also said going in person allowed him to better understand the work they do and ultimately take better photographs. 

The most important part of working on an article like this is to follow up with sources and attempt to get out in the field to really see the work these organizations do. 

Check out these resources on the Covering Poverty website about how to report for service journalism. 

Resources for learning and doing data journalism

Action Items for Better Poverty Coverage

Read how reporter Janelle Ward reported this piece for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: How organizations are working to diminish diaper need and where to find free products

No matter one’s economic status, raising a child is expensive. But for parents and guardians in poverty, these expenses can be even more challenging to regularly afford. When I received the pitch to cover diaper need in Atlanta, I wasn’t aware how costly disposable diapers could be for the average family. Looking into data and reading stories of baby supply insecurity in Georgia was eye-opening, especially at a time where inflation is at a record high across the country.

I began my research looking into the problem of “diaper need” directly. I browsed the National Diaper Bank Network website for national and statewide statistics to understand the enormity of the issue. I was shocked by the statistics I found; so many families depend on creative methods to stretch out their diaper supplies to ensure they last as long as possible. I wanted to shift my thinking to why diaper need had grown to such a big issue. This led me to research the global supply chain shortage and explain how it impacts store shelves and prices all over the country. I also highlighted the prices of disposable diaper packs at different grocery stores in the area to further place into perspective how these supply shortages affect local communities as well as larger markets.

I then looked up nonprofit organizations in the metro Atlanta area working to provide free resources, which is how I discovered Helping Mamas. The organization has grown immensely over the past 6 years and adjusted its method of outreach to better suit metro Atlantans during the pandemic. I spoke with Jamie Lackey, founder and chief executive officer of Helping Mamas, about how her organization plays a role in diminishing diaper need. I also spoke with Maria Henriquez, director of Medicaid plan marketing at Amerigroup Georgia about the initiatives she and her team take to help needy families. 

Diapers, disposable or otherwise, are necessary for babies to remain healthy as they grow to become toddlers, which makes diaper availability an issue connected to health care. The health care beat on the Covering Poverty website gave me great questions to ask myself as I carried out the reporting and writing process. 

Janelle Ward is a senior at the University of Georgia.

Covering Poverty has compiled some of the most interesting reporting from 2021, from video stories, to features, to photography. Read why we chose them below.

The Geography of Food Insecurity in America

The GroundTruth Project

This story was produced as part of “Barren Mile: COVID-19 and the fight against food apartheid,” which was a Report for America initiative that brought together four Black-owned newsrooms — New York Amsterdam News, the Atlanta Voice, St. Louis American and Black Voice News — to look at how COVID-19 impacted food security in their communities. This specific piece features photographs from various towns in America to document what food insecurity looks like from Sitka, Alaska to Athens, Georgia.

These Single Mom Are Forced to Choose: Reveal Their Sexual Histories or Forfeit Welfare

ProPublica

This ProPublica piece examines welfare funding’s frequent requirement that women identify who fathered their children and when they became pregnant, among other deeply personal details. This practice has deep roots in U.S. history — back to the bastardy laws of colonial times. The contemporary, less violent arrangement requires states to “go after fathers of children whose mothers had applied for welfare, in an attempt to get them to pay child support to the government as repayment for those welfare dollars.” This piece makes our list because of its deep examination of the welfare legislation and its focus on the affected mothers.

When Dasani Left Home

The New York Times

In 2013, the story of Dasani Coates took up five pages in The New York Times. With eight siblings, Dasani and her family lived in a city-run homeless shelter in Brooklyn. This original piece provided a rare look into how homelessness affects the course of one’s life.

In September 2021, The New York Times Magazine published another piece — When Dasani Left Home. New York Times writer Andrea Elliot was allowed to follow Dasani’s family for almost 10 years, and in the follow-up piece, Dasani separates from her family at 13 years old to attend Milton Hershey school – a boarding school that tries to rescue children from poverty. This makes our list because of the author’s dedication to telling this story, and the attention to carefully tell Dasani’s story. (The author has also published a book: “Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City”).

“It’s a walkout!” Inside the fast-food workers’ season of rebellion

The Washington Post

This piece tells the story of an employee walk-out in Bradford, Pennsylvania, a town with a 30 percent poverty rate. McDonalds’ employees from a Bradford location, tired of low wages, 60-hour workweeks and an emotionally taxing job, banded together and walked out of the McDonald’s in protest. This story examines the aftermath of the walkout and provides context on the working conditions and low wages of the corporate fast-food industry.

Pandemic Prompts More Black Americans to Take Up Urban Gardening to End “Food Apartheid”

St. Louis American/Mother Jones

This story was produced as part of “Barren Mile: COVID-19 and the fight against food apartheid,” which was a Report for America initiative that brought together four Black-owned newsrooms — New York Amsterdam News, the Atlanta Voice, St. Louis American and Black Voice News — to look at how COVID-19 impacted food security in their communities. This particular piece looks at how Black people, who were affected by food insecurity at higher levels than white people during the pandemic, took to urban gardening as “home-grown solutions to the redlining-induced problem of limited access to healthy foods.” This piece also addresses how “food deserts,” or what activists call sites of “food apartheid,” systemically affected Black communities.

How America’s hottest city is trying to cool down

Vox

This video examines how Pheonix’ urban design contributes to extreme heat in the city. The city is looking to trees as part of its heat mitigation strategy, but trees are distributed unevenly across the city. There are fewer trees in the south and west, which is where many lower-income neighborhoods are located. This piece does an incredible job at explaining how trees could be a solution, and at exploring the promises – and gaps – of the city’s “tree equity” plan.

“Biblical” flooding in South Sudan displaces hundreds of thousands.

CNN

This reporting from CNN’s International Correspondent Clarissa Ward details how extreme flooding in south Sudan displaced hundreds of thousands, pushing many into poverty. This illustrates how climate change will affect everyone, and those in poverty are the most vulnerable.

Hidden Nashville

Bitter Southerner

This story follows nonprofit outreach and resource navigator Susan Adock as she builds relationship with Nashville’s homeless population. Adock also is a photographer, and uses her photography to advocate for those affected by poverty. This deeply personal piece follows Susan’s work and also details how Nashville’s homeless have become increasingly vulnerable, from a tornado and bombing in 2020 to the city’s clearing of homeless camps. 

A Long-Deferred Hope for Better Housing

The Washington Post Magazine

This piece examines housing support in the economically depressed Missisippi Delta, a majority-Black rural region in the South. It tells the story of one woman’s home renovation after her house had decayed throughout her years of occupancy, and the piece also shines a light on housing injustice in the region. Photos document how the home renovation — made possible from a state grant — improved the woman’s home.

Disruptions to schooling fall hardest on vulnerable students

The Associated Press

This story describes why vulnerable students, often living in poverty, were the hardest hit from school disruptions amid the coronavirus pandemic. Families often don’t have the resources to deal with breakdowns in the public education system, and can’t educate their child when they are exposed to COVID-19 and have no access to online schooling.

Kyra Posey is a graduate student studying journalism at the University of Georgia. 

Why Cover Climate? 

• Climate change affects many aspects of society, such as human health, agriculture and food security, water supply, transportation, energy and ecosystems.
• These aspects are expected to become increasingly disruptive as the century continues.
• As global temperatures and sea levels rise and as the oceans acidify, research shows that people living in poverty are the most severely impacted.
• Climate change affects everything from where a person can live to their access to health care, and it will be difficult for people in poverty to adjust.
• Up to 132 million people will be pushed into extreme poverty by 2030, according to research.

Research Guide

Here is a list of databases, essential reading and institutions with information to help you form the right questions about poverty and climate change.

Aren’t finding what you need? Check out our list of essential studies, data and tools.

If you’re feeling stuck, use the resources below to help answer these questions. They might help you get started on a story or expand on an idea about climate change and poverty.

• What percentage of families in your county live below the poverty line?
• What is the unemployment rate?
• What is the poverty rate in your county?
• Is extreme heat affecting my city’s poorest communities?
• What questions should I ask government officials about how they’re combatting the effects of climate change?
• How could climate change affect people in poverty in my state?
• How could climate change affect people in poverty in the future?

Databases & Datasets

Tree Equity Score

This resource by American Forests, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit conservation organization, provides a map of tree cover in cities and towns across America. The Tree Equity Score calculates a score from 1-100 based on how much tree canopy and surface align with income, employment, race, age and health factors in the U.S. This resource provides a score for 150,000 neighborhoods and 486 urbanized areas in America.

Annual Greenhouse Gas Index

The Annual Greenhouse Gas Index, produced by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, measures the capacity of Earth’s atmosphere to trap heat as a result of the presence of long-lived greenhouse gases. This data provides information about how human activity has affected the climate system. 

Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP) collects Greenhouse Gas (GHG) data from large emitting facilities, suppliers of fossil fuels and industrial gases that result in GHG emissions when used, and facilities that inject carbon dioxide underground.

American Community Service Data

This data from the U.S. Census Bureau provides detailed information about the U.S. population, including housing, economics, and demographic information. This data set will be useful in stories which examine climate issues in certain communities and neighborhoods.

Essential Reading & Viewing

Global Citizen: Why Climate Change and Poverty Are Inextricably Linked

This article explains the relation between poverty and climate change, and the implications climate change could have in the future.

NPR: As Rising Heat Bakes U.S. Cities, The Poor Often Feel It Most

This investigation from NPR and the University of Maryland’s Howard Center for Investigative Journalism uses NASA/U.S. Geological Survey satellite imagery and U.S. Census American Community Survey data to show the link between heat and income in U.S. cities. They detail their methodology and share the link to their open-source computer program for journalists and organizations who want to replicate their investigation.

Public Integrity and Columbia Journalism Investigations: Dangerous Heat, Unequal Consequences: How two neighborhoods in Arizona and Florida became hotspots for sickening heat

This project examines how low income communities experience higher rates of heat-related illnesses. The data used in this story shows that emergency room visits and hospitalizations due to heat-related illnesses are more likely in area with less income, and in neighborhoods with a history of racial segregation. The story links to a detailed data and methodology document to demonstrate how this investigation was possible.

Vox: How America’s hottest city is trying to cool down

This video visits Phoenix and explores how trees might save the city from extreme heat. 

Academic Papers and Relevant Studies

NASA Landsat Science: Ecosystem, Vegetation Affect Intensity of Urban Heat Island Effect

This NASA report  the origins and development of the “heat island” concept. The “heat island” effect was discovered when scientists first observed cities growing warmer than surrounding rural areas. 

Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure Journal: Urban Heat Implications from Parking, Roads, and Cars: a Case Study of Metro Phoenix

This research examines the infrastructure that contributes to Phoenix’s stifling heat. Other articles from Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure focus on the sustainable development of resilient communities.

Institutions

U.S. Global Change Research Program

This federal program researches the forces shaping the global environment and their impacts on society. There you can access the National Climate Assessment, view reports, examine the physical science behind climate change and more. 

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

The EPA’s climate change website provides climate change facts, information about what the EPA is doing, and datasets and reports such as the Social Vulnerability Report which examines how climate change specifically impacts socially vulnerable populations based on income, education, race and ethnicity.

UN Environment Programme

This page from the UN offers information on the intersection of environmental issues and biosafety, gender, conflict and disaster, sports and more.

---

Kyra Posey is a graduate student studying journalism at the University of Georgia. 

Covering evictions can be a challenge for reporters. Shelter is a basic human need, and an eviction is a traumatic event for individuals. There are multiple angles to cover this topic, from how difficult it is for people to recover from an eviction to how to explain the complex eviction process. 

When Sean Keenan reported on the U.S. Supreme Court’s rejection of the Biden administration’s nationwide ban on evictions in August 2021 due to the financial turmoil caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, he wrote these words:

“For more than a year, Atlanta renters have dreaded the crash of what Terri Lee, the city’s chief housing officer, called a ‘tsunami’ of evictions — a tidal wave of displacement in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now, it seems that wave is cresting.”

He wrote these words with such gravity because he knew that millions of people across the U.S.  were suddenly at risk for eviction after the Supreme Court struck down the protections originally mandated due to the economic effects of the pandemic. Keenan reports on housing for the Atlanta Civic Circle, an online news platform that provides in-depth reporting on the most critical issues facing metro Atlanta. 

Read the full story here: The “tsunami” approaches: With federal moratorium killed, Atlanta braces for crush of evictions

“I was just like, so many people are going to become homeless, and a lot of those people will die,” Keenan said.

More than 8 million U.S. adults live in households that are behind on rent payments, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey. Over 4 million Americans have no confidence that they won’t be able to pay next month’s rent. 

“Housing is central to almost every aspect of your life. Where you live dictates where you can go to school, where you can get a job, the safety of your environment,” Keenan said.

For more tips on covering housing, you can also check out our Housing Beat Guide.

Even after the Supreme Court rejected the nationwide ban on evictions, counties and states still were legally allowed to have an eviction ban. But with no federal mandate, some of those bans, such as the ones in DeKalb County and in California, expired in September 2021, putting hundreds of thousands of more renters at risk of eviction. 

Housing and government reporters have useful tips to remember while reporting on evictions.

Hold government officials accountable.

Reporters can hold government officials accountable by asking questions about how government entities are working to prevent evictions, and exploring whether the government’s actions match their promises in their reported stories.

Linked to the issue of ensuing evictions is states’ slow distribution of money from emergency rental assistance programs, such as in DeKalb County, which only distributed a portion of the $21 million provided by the federal government for renters in need when the county’s eviction moratorium expired. 

After the Supreme Court decision came down, slow distribution made Keenan check in on what counties were doing to prevent evictions. 

When Fulton County officials said that they were protecting evictions and  they had their own rental assistance program to aid in this, Keenan asked whether the county would enact an eviction moratorium. 

The county judge said that Fulton would not extend an eviction moratorium, even though at the time DeKalb had one in place. This proved that Fulton, in fact, was not doing everything in its power to prevent evictions.

“A lot of this job is putting fire to the feet of public officials,” Keenan said. “All you can do is ask the questions.” 

At best, holding officials accountable affects change after they confront how their decisions are actively affecting at-risk citizens, and at the very least, this reporting can inform audiences about which officials are responsible for the issues at hand.

“Public officials can almost always do more to help people,” Keenan said.

Also be sure to write how government actions — or inactions — to prevent evictions are affecting people at risk of eviction along with the accountability approach.

“Once you have an eviction on your record, it’s 100 times harder to find another apartment or another house to rent,” Tyler Estep, a reporter covering DeKalb County for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, said. “So it’s kind of a balancing act of doing that government accountability piece, but not losing sight of how it’s affecting real people.”

Read one of Tyler’s stories on DeKalb’s rental assistance here: DeKalb has now distributed $7.9 million in rental assistance funds

Utilize other sources besides those being evicted.

It can often be difficult to speak with renters who are at-risk for eviction, as often talking with a reporter when they’re facing homelessness is the last thing on their mind. 

Through collaboration with the Poynter Institute, Street Sense Media has created a guide for covering the homelessness crisis. 

Estep recommends developing relationships with local nonprofits, housing advocates and homeless shelters.

“A lot of times, those are the trusted people in the community,” Estep said. They can either speak on their perspective on the housing crisis as a community leader, or connect reporters with people affected by eviction.

Janice Yu, a reporter at Fox 5 Atlanta, said reporters can explore what those at risk of being evicted are experiencing, but can also look at  the issue through the perspective of landlords, realtors, eviction attorneys and more.

“There’s going to be stories for days because you can tell it from the tenants’ angle, you can tell it from the landlord’s angle,” Yu said. “At the rate that they’re coming in, there will be more evictions that are served, so how many can these law enforcement officers handle in a day? Another thing is, how long is it going to take for these people to get kicked out of their homes? There are so many other arms of the story that you can get that might not be what everyone else is doing.”

Understand the reality of the people who are most affected by evictions.

During the reporting process and the production process, work to understand what people affected by evictions are actually experiencing, including renters and landlords. This process can sometimes lead to a service journalism approach. 

“At the end of the day, you have to think about how what you’re producing is impacting and who it’s about,” Keenan said. 

To better understand what people at risk of eviction had to go through in order to receive federal rental assistance, Keenan filled out the complicated paperwork required for receiving rental assistance in Georgia. Georgia differs from some other states, like Texas, where only a legal attestation is required to receive relief funds. 

“They required all of this paperwork, and especially for those affected by poverty, or old people who don’t have technical skills, or people who just don’t have access to computers or cell phones, it was incredibly difficult to even apply for it,” Keenan said. 

This process allowed him to better understand the barriers to access to receive federal funding. 

Keenan also received emails from people who were at risk for eviction or who applied for assistance asking for his advice. While he can’t help in every case, there have been a few instances where he’s been able to get responses to people’s questions from his connections in local governments. This fits in, too, with Atlanta Civic Circle’s solution journalism approach as it ramps up outreach to affected communities.

Yu also recommends becoming familiar with the process that leads to an eviction and what happens after an eviction notice is issued. When she reported on the Supreme Court decision in August 2021, she learned that many tenants facing eviction are unaware of the steps they need to take when an eviction notice is issued. She reported a story about what people need to do if they receive an eviction notice.    

“As a journalist covering these topics, it’s good to know the background,” Yu said. “And maybe the background becomes your story.”

Read the digital story here: Many tenants facing eviction taken by surprise due to limited understanding of the process

Maintaining a human connection to what people at risk of eviction might be experiencing and having empathy can ensure sensitive and ethical coverage.

“You have to talk to real people differently than you would to some county commissioner that you’re trying to hold accountable for a vote on some issue,” Estep said. “It’s a different tone, and you have to remember that you’re a human, too. Sometimes journalists try to separate themselves from the story, but at some point, you have to maintain that human connection with them.”

Kyra Posey is a graduate student studying journalism at the University of Georgia.