With support from the Fund, Suzie Amanuel’s months-long investigation of Washington, DC’s at-risk affordable housing stock uncovered that the District quietly forfeited more than $3 million in competitive federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, resulting in a permanent loss of tens of millions of dollars in affordable housing equity. The Washington City Paper investigation revealed that the District’s top housing official ...
Private managers of federally subsidized housing projects in New York City are systematically failing to properly screen tenants for rental-assistance programs, resulting in rent miscalculations and eviction filings, Patrick Spauster found in an investigation for City Limits that was supported by the Fund. Spauster obtained and analyzed thousands of pages of public records to determine that 95 percent of property ...
For years, the state of Hawaii sent foster boys to live with John Teixeira, who sexually preyed on some of the boys and physically abused most of them, and older boys abused younger ones. Reports of abuse were inadequately investigated and went nowhere. With support from the Fund, Honolulu Civil Beat interviewed former foster boys and their relatives and dug ...
For a half-hour documentary on KUNM, the NPR member station in Albuquerque, Kent Patterson and Mercedes Mejia dug into environmental and public-health concerns of Southern New Mexico communities that straddle the Mexican border. For decades, residents have struggled with environmental issues that came to the fore again in 2023, when toxic levels of arsenic were recorded in discolored water. The ...
Georgia is one of the world’s fastest growing markets for new data centers to support the AI boom, and developers are pushing local officials to approve massive construction projects outside of normal processes and over residents’ objections, Edward Donnelly found in an ongoing investigation supported by the Fund. Through public records and on-the-ground reporting, Donnelly tracked how developers hired lobbyists ...
Hundreds of thousands of children nationwide are struggling with long Covid, which many doctors and school refuse to recognize, Eli Cahan reported for Rolling Stone. With a seed grant from the Fund, Cahan spoke with dozens of families over the last two years to examine the impact of long Covid on children. He found “a slow-moving spiral: first their health, ...
Luke Mullins documented alarming conditions inside Psychiatric Institute of Washington (PIW), which is a key part Washington, D.C.’s mental health safety net. For an investigation in the Washingtonian with support from the Fund, Mullins drew from lawsuits, regulatory documents obtained through FIOA, and interviews with former patients and staff members. He found a violently charged environment that was linked to ...
For stories published by ProPublica, with support from the Fund, Eli Cahan found that dozens of psychiatric hospitals have turned away patients in crisis, in violation of federal law, but have rarely faced consequences from federal oversight authorities. Cahan identified more than 90 psychiatric hospitals across the country that have turned away patients in crisis over the 15 years – ...
With support from the Fund, Rebecca John obtained documents revealing that, as early as 1974, the plastics industry knew its products could not be recycled. For DeSmog, John assessed the relevance of the documents for current treaty negotiations in which fossil fuel-producing nations and companies that help make plastic have lobbied against limits on plastic production. John also examined the ...
Using thousands of police disciplinary records from across New York State gathered with support from the Fund, Sammy Sussman examined a pattern of police officers who were disciplined, but not criminally charged, after they drank and drove. The investigation for New York Focus and The New York Times, where Sussman is a Local Investigations Fellow, focused on the lack of ...