IRE Radio Podcast | Homeless on the Road

If you’re walking down the street in San Francisco, it’s impossible to ignore. On any given day there are nearly 7,500 homeless people on the city’s streets. It’s an issue many of America’s largest cities are struggling to keep up with. But some have found a cheap solution to reduce their homeless populations: one-way bus tickets out of town. On this week’s episode, we talk with The Guardian’s Alastair Gee and Julia Carrie Wong about their 18-month nationwide investigation that revealed the extent to which cities were abandoning their homeless.

You can find the podcast on Soundcloud, iTunes, Stitcher and Google Play. If you have a story you think we should feature on the show, drop us a note at web@ire.org. We’d love to hear from you.

RESOURCES

Looking for links to the stories and resources we discussed on this week's podcast? We've collected them for you.

• Read the Guardian’s investigation “Bussed Out: How America moves its homeless.”
• Learn more about how the Guardian pulled off their 18-month investigation in their “Outside in America” newsletter.
• Members only: Check out examples of investigations about homelessness, such as WTHR-TV’s “Charity Caught on Camera” and Al Jazeera America’s “Philly’s Invisible Youth.”
• Members only: Listen to ProPublica’s Topher Sanders talk about techniques for developing sources.
• Members only: Download the tipsheet on “Putting your town under a microscope -- and keeping it there” by Kate Howard, Matt Kiefer and Andrew Mollica.

MUSIC

Vernouillet (Blue Dot Sessions) / CC BY-NC 4.0

El-Tajo (Blue Dot Sessions) / CC BY-NC 4.0

Fifteen-Street (Blue Dot Sessions) / CC BY-NC 4.0

Ultima-Thule (Blue Dot Sessions) / CC BY-NC 4.0

Feathersoft (Blue Dot Sessions) / CC BY-NC 4.0

KeoKeo (Blue Dot Sessions) / CC BY-NC 4.0

Gaddy (Blue Dot Sessions) / CC BY-NC 4.0

Myrian (Blue Dot Sessions) / CC BY-NC 4.0

Villano (Blue Dot Sessions) / CC BY-NC 4.0

CREDITS

Tessa Weinberg reported this episode. IRE Editorial Director Sarah Hutchins edits the podcast. Blake Nelson draws our episode art. We are recorded in the studios of KBIA at the University of Missouri.