Homelessness Reporting Guides
By Emma Turgeon
- News
When navigating narratives on the people and communities affected by homelessness, the efforts to maintain safety, dignity, and journalistic integrity are essential. However, for new and seasoned journalists alike, it is not always clearhow to handle the sources and stories of people in vulnerable positions.
As growing political and socialissues create numerouslogistical hurdles for journalists to steer, understanding how to conduct these stories is more important than ever.
The Homelessness Beat Reporters Collective (HBRC), a group of journalists who cover homelessness across the U.S, including Annemarie Cuccia from Street Sense Media, and Robert Davis from the Denver VOICE, created their first guide to covering homelessness in the media July of last year.
Since then, a second guide has been published for further advice and updated data.These guides can serve as a resource for journalists, editors, and other researchers working in the homelessness space, as well as an inspiration to people in other regions to consider creating their own versions based on the most pressing issues in their communities.
The first, The Homelessness Reporting Guide, explores how reporters can work with sources experiencing homelessness to telltheir stories with respect and complexity and can be applied to reporting on homelessness in any location or context. As well as providing a guide to communication with sources and the representation of stories on homelessness, this resource also includes notes on proper language, self-care for journalists, and pursuing solutions.
The second, The Homelessness Reporting Toolkit 2026, dives into U.S. specific issues like federal funding and encampment policies. The sections on Housing First and narratives around homelessnessmay however be useful to anyone.The sources and data collected in this guide are a solid point of reference for any journalist, and a starting point for journalists unfamiliar with the topic of homelessness. Further, its structure and information are a quality example of what can be re-produced in communities and countries around the globe.
“As an editor at a publication focused on homelessness, we’re often getting requests to connect reporters to sources or help them understand the issue, especially when homelessness is in the national news.
“It’s really exciting to be able to share the knowledge of our group with anyone who may be covering homelessness for the first time. We hope they feel more confident and equipped to write these stories.” Annemarie Cuccia, Street Sense Media
One of the most valuable lessons from these guides is understanding the relationship between people and the story. Maintaining “people-first” language, always providing context, and using experience as evidence,connects the communities to the cause. The advice from HBRC’s guides allow the voices within the homelessness space, sources and reporters alike, to inspire positive change through storytelling.
More information on both guides is available on the HRBC website.
