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Housing and Homelessness (RSS)

Mortgage Mess

Black Americans are much more likely than whites to get stuck paying high interest rates for their mortgages than whites, according to a comprehensive investigation by Aliza Appelbaum and Alden K. Loury of The Chicago Reporter. Their "An Equal Opportunity

Government Screw-Ups

I've seen a couple of great examples recently of television networks serving as watchdogs when the government acts with complete insensitivity toward some of its most vulnerable citizens. Brian Ross and Vic Walter of ABC News, in conjunction with Audrey

Winning Pictures

The National Press Photographers Association has finished its 2008 competition, and the winners show us the best of photojournalism on the Web. John Moore of Getty Images captured first place in the still photo category for a portfolio showing the causes

Bad Deeds

The Chicago Tribune has been producing outstanding articles on mortgage fraud. Their latest, "This House Was a Steal" by Susan Chandler, begins with a memorable scene: The new buyers of a rundown graystone on the South Side showed up Jan. 9 to look at

Homeless in San Francisco

Reporter Amanda Witherell and intern Bryan Cohen of the San Franisco Bay Guardian spent a week living undercover in the city's shelters to learn what it's like for the homeless to navigate a confusing system. Witherell's amazing "Shelter Shuffle" is

Uneasy in the Big Easy

Along with the New Orleans Times-Picayune, the alternative Gambit Weekly has been doing a terrific job of describing its city's plight following Hurricane Katrina. In last week's "Under the Bridge," Greg Thomas writes about spending

The Rock Comes to a Hard Place

Can one man save the poorest place in Texas' richest county? In "The Fight for Sugar Hill,"  Paul Meyer of The Dallas Morning News offers a brilliant profile of Rock Carpenter, a struggling pastor who tries to rescue the desperate

High-Cost Capital of America

The Chicago region has led the nation for three years in a row in high-cost mortgages that often leave homeowners with crippling debt, The Chicago Reporter has discovered. "The High Price of Home Ownership" by the Reporter's Kimbriell