The cost of home: Carnegie-Knight News21 Fellows tackle America’s housing crisis

One of the most pressing challenges facing our nation takes center stage as part of this year’s Carnegie-Knight News21 program headquartered at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, located at Arizona State University's Downtown Phoenix campus.

Nearly two dozen student journalists from across the U.S. are in Phoenix this summer to sharpen their enterprise reporting and solutions journalism skills through a national project focused on housing.

In Arizona alone, evictions and homelessness have reached record highs. According to the Morrison Institute, a minimum-wage worker would need to work 86 hours to afford a two-bedroom home. 

“Unsettled” will document the policies, systems and solutions that shape the housing crisis — and capture the stories of the people living with the consequences.

”The American dream has always been tied to home ownership, but that dream is increasingly out of reach for many Americans,” Executive Editor Celeste Sepessy said. “News21 fellows have traveled from coast to coast exploring our nation's most urgent housing challenges and evidence-based solutions.”

Prior to starting the 10-week fellowship, students conducted extensive housing research at their respective universities. This year’s cohort represents eight schools.

The final multimedia project will be published this fall and shared with national media outlets for publication.

Past Carnegie-Knight News21 work has been featured in The Associated Press, The Washington Post, USA Today, NBC News and hundreds of other large and small media outlets. These projects have earned dozens of national honors, including the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards Grand Prize, Edward R. Murrow Awards, Hearst Journalism Awards, Online Journalism Awards, Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Awards, and many others.

Funding for the program is provided by Knight Foundation. Individual fellows are supported by their universities as well as other foundations, news publications and philanthropic partners like the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, the Scripps Howard Foundation, The Arizona Republic/azcentral, Gray Media, NBCUniversal, the Reynolds Center for Business Journalism and more.

This year’s News21 program fellows are:

• Sophia Braccio, Arizona State University
• Ian Brown, Arizona State University
• Aidan Calkins, St. Bonaventure University
• Caden Dyer, University of Tennessee
• Sophie Farrell, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Howard G. Buffett Foundation Fellow
• Pippa Fung, Arizona State University, Don Bolles/Arizona Republic Fellow
• A'lauren Gilchrist, Norfolk State University
• Jazmin Goodwin, Arizona State University, NBCUniversal Fellow
• Dawson Iasillo, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Howard G. Buffett Foundation Fellow
• Jackson Ingvoldstad, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Howard G. Buffett Foundation Fellow
• Quỳnh Lê, Arizona State University, Reynolds Center for Business Journalism Fellow
• Sinafi Omanga, Arizona State University, Howard G. Buffett Foundation Fellow
• Lavanya Paliwal, Arizona State University, Howard G. Buffett Foundation Fellow
• Lauren Pruett, University of North Texas
• Sophie Schaeffer, Arizona State University, Howard G. Buffett Foundation Fellow
• Janelle Sears, Florida A&M University, Scripps Howard Foundation Fellow
• Sarah Taylor, University of Colorado Boulder

This year’s cohort also includes a journalism product and artificial intelligence team with four interdisciplinary ASU fellows:

• Reuben J. Brown
• Disha Devalia
• Matthew Marengo
• Bella Mazzilli