(8:42a.m.) Diana Cisnero, holds her daughter, Sandra, as Ellarose, left, Juston, and Derelle Foster surround her inside their room at Hamilton Families on Golden Gate Ave. Tuesday June 18, 2019. Guy Wathen/San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle • Aug. 14, 2019 • By Jill Tucker
The San Francisco Chronicle was honored Wednesday as the recipient of the prestigious Sidney Award in August for its unprecedented coverage of homelessness in the city over a 24-hour period in July.
The Sidney Hillman Foundation, which administers the awards, acknowledged the significant scope of the project as well as the diverse array of homeless people portrayed in the project, including those living in RVs, shelters or on the streets.
“We just loved it,” said Sidney award judge Lindsay Beyerstein. “I just felt it was one of the best things I’ve ever read on homelessness.”
The Chronicle’s project, “One day, one city, no relief,” included the participation of three dozen reporters and photographers who fanned out across the city over a 24-hour period to document homelessness through the lives of those without stable housing, as well as city officials, first responders, activists and the medical community.
“This story captures the diversity of homeless residents and their needs,” Beyerstein said. “The reporting vividly describes the hardships of life on the street, but also the grit and resourcefulness of individuals trying to survive.”
The story begins at 4:47 a.m. as Alex “Shorty” Pierson charges his phone and raps along to a Nipsey Hussle track. It ends at 5 a.m. the next day as a city maintenance worker power washes a plaza near an encampment and collects the broken meth pipe, bottles, soggy clothes and other trash accumulated on the plaza in just one day.
“This was an incredible journalistic undertaking that required nearly a third of our newsroom to produce. It also may be the longest Chronicle story ever published. It was a risky project, which makes this award especially meaningful,” said Chronicle Editor in Chief Audrey Cooper. “Our goal in all our coverage is to elevate the public discussion around this humanitarian crisis, and we are gratified that our readers and the judges thought this story accomplished that.”
Previous winners this year include the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and The New Yorker.
The monthly award as well as the annual Hillman Prize, “honors excellence in journalism in service of the common good.”
The foundation, created to support textile workers in the 1940s, provides grants and support for housing, medical care and employment security.