Washington, D.C. — ThinkProgress Senior Reporter Scott Keyes is the recipient of the David Pike Excellence in Journalism Award for his coverage of homelessness.
The honor is awarded by Street Sense, D.C.’s newspaper for and by people who are experiencing homelessness and is given to journalists who seek to shift the way we think about homelessness.
Keyes’s ThinkProgress piece “The Problem with Criminalizing Homelessness,” which investigated the impact of measures such as Florida’s statute 316.130 §18 that ostensibly make homelessness illegal, was selected for the award. For the story, Keyes looked not only at the moral questions raised by the criminalization of homelessness but also at the practical and financial issues that criminalizing homelessness presents. His on the ground reporting in Florida offered readers the opportunity to hear insight about the criminalization of homelessness from the people who are most impacted—people such as Franklin, a 53-year-old homeless veteran in South Florida who has been repeatedly fined for going car to car asking for money.
“The challenges facing homeless people are often invisible in the mainstream media, which is why Scott’s work on stories about homeless people is so important,” said Judd Legum, Editor in Chief of ThinkProgress. “We are thrilled that the David Pike Awards Committee has recognized Scott’s excellent reporting and his contribution to challenging perceptions about homelessness.”
“The Problem with Criminalizing Homelessness,” which won Keyes recognition, is representative of his broader body of work. In “Welcome To Shawnee, Oklahoma: The Worst City In America To Be Homeless,” Keyes investigated the conditions for homeless people living in Shawnee, Oklahoma, and reported in depth about how poverty in the city is never just about poverty but also about race and history. Other in-depth reporting on the challenges facing the nation’s homeless population and innovative solutions to homelessness include “The Bone-Chilling, Heart-Wrenching Process Of Counting The Nation’s Homeless” and “The Most Innovative Homeless Service You’ve Never Heard Of.”
To speak to Scott Keyes, please contact Madeline Meth at [email protected].
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