The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "homeless centers" ...
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Los Angeles VA Has Made Millions on Rental Deals
This story is about one of the most fought-over pieces of property in Los Angeles, the 400 acre Veterans Affairs Medical Center campus in West Los Angeles. It’s in an affluent neighborhood and has been a target of developers. But with many unused buildings, it’s also been coveted as a place to house some of L.A.’s 8,000 homeless veterans. That was the original use of the land, which was donated for an Old Soldiers’ Home in the late 19th century. The VA has not acted on plans announced in 2007 to begin rehabbing unused buildings there for housing for homeless vets. Meanwhile, it’s rented out land and buildings to commercial enterprises. There is no public accounting for this income. Through FOIA and other documents, we found that the VA is renting out the property using a law intended for sharing health care resources, though the renters are non-health related commercial enterprises. We were also able to estimate that the VA has taken in at least 28 million and possibly more than 40 million dollars over the past dozen years, far more than the cost of re-habbing a building to house homeless vets.
Tags: Property; neighborhood; land uses; veterans
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Donald T. Sterling's Skid Row Mirage
According to advertisements he distributed in the media, Los Angeles Clippers basketball owner Donald T. Sterling was building a new homeless center in downtown LA. But after L.A. Weekly did some investigating, they found he wasn't close to constructing anything. In fact, he was still looking for a homeless service provider to raise the $50 million needed to build the Donald T. Sterling Homeless Center.
Tags: homeless centers; celebrity; fundraising; construction; false advertising; wealthy; media scam; public relations
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Skid Row Series
LA Weekly reporter Sam Slovick profiles the extra-vulnerable inhabitants of Los Angeles' Skid Row: children (called "skids") and the elderly.
Tags: skids; homeless children; Union Rescue Mission; Central City Community Outreach; Project Safe Sleep; Saaint VIncent's Cardinal Manning Center for the Homeless; United COalition East Prevention Project; Healing Hands Medical Group
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The Invisible Population: homelessness in the metro
This story outlines the severity of homelessness in the "metro area" - Omaha, NE, and Council Bluffs, IA. The story talks about the number of people affected by homelessness, and personalizes the issue by exploring the debilitating circumstances to which many homeless adults were exposed throughout their lives. The story also talks about the metro's community efforts and explains the structure of an award-winning program that works to address all components of homelessness.
Tags: homelessness; community efforts; Siena/Francis House; Salvation Army's Winter Night Watch Program; Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation Center; Omaha-Council Bluffs Consolidated Plan for Community Development Programs; Omaha Area Continuum of Care for the Homeless (OACCH); Welfare Reform Act; HUD; Open Door Mission; National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty
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Beyond Shelter
Governing reports on Broward County's efforts to combat its homeless problem. The homeless were living in a tent city across the street from Fort Lauderdale City Hall. Now they're living in "Homeless Assistance Centers," which offer job and life skills instead of just a place to stay for the night. Though the program is geared towards long-term solutions, critics say that certain kinds of homeless people -- the disabled, the mentally ill -- are not able to live with the restrictions of the centers.
Tags: homelessness; homeless shelters; tent cities; Housing and Urban Development
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Throw away the key
Westword reports on the closing of a group of juvenile homes in Boulder County, Colorado. The story finds that Attention Homes, the private nonprofit organization that runs the residential treatment centers, has been successful in dealing with troubled kids, but the county court system gradually stopped referring anyone to it. The report questions the county's philosophy of treating troubled kids in their own homes and sending to juvenile centers only "adolescents with extreme problems."
Tags: mental health; psychiatric hospitals; crime; abuse; adolescents; children; homeless; low-income; poverty; Attention Homes; welfare
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Battling for Benefits
"Women have formally served in the United States armed forces for nearly a century, beginning with the creation of the Army Nurse Corps in 1901. But women are only now winning a long battle for veteran's health care services that has at times seemed as formidable as the conflicts they faced in two World Wars, Korea, Vietnam, and the Persian Gulf." Due to recent legislation over the last ten years, health care for female veterans has greatly improved. Female veterans now may receive monthly compensation payments for loss of a breast for reasons related to military service and benefits for children born with birth defects. However, "the VA recognizes that more improvements are needed . . . including providing greater privacy in hospital facilities and better inpatient psychiatric care for women." In addition, "veterans groups point to other ways in the VA could more effectively help women: developing better programs for those women veterans who are homeless; paying more attention to the specific health care needs of women; and giving the special women veterans' coordinators more time to do their job." Reporter Karen Lee Scrivo reports more on these issues.
Tags: women; military; Veterans Affairs Department; Center for Women Veterans; Women Veterans Health Programs Act; children; Special Monthly Compensation K Award; health care
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Voices from the Street
WOOD-TV "followed the lives of some mentally ill people over a period of more than two years to expose failures of the Michigan mental health system. We found that the closing of state mental hospitals in tune with the philosophy of returning people to be treated in the community fails some who have the least support... The county jail has become a substitute mental hospital for mentally ill people; the center of a cycle for people who stop taking their medication once they are released to the street, offend again and are returned to jail. Some drop out and go untreated because the system makes little effort to bring them back...."
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The Apostle and Let Us Prey
The Times of Acadiana reports its two-part series "showed how the executive directors of the three largest charity organizations for the homeless in Lafayette, Louisiana, worked to build a nonprofit empire from federal grants and community donations to further their own gain at the expense of the homeless."
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Cedar Hills:Toxic Detox?
KOMO Radio (Seattle) reporter checks into alcoholic treatment center for indigents and finds administrative problems; patients are exposed to an adjacent landfill, March 1987.