The award-winning House Poor project is made up of five pieces which examine what has been driving escalating Canadian home costs.The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail has won an Online Journalism Award for a project that examined the state of Canada’s housing crisis.
The House Poor project won in the category of Explanatory Reporting, Large Newsroom.
The project, which examined what has been driving escalating home prices in Canada and potential solutions to the crisis, involved journalists from across the newsroom and produced dozens of stories over the course of a year.
The nomination highlighted five pieces, including a months-long effort to illustrate underused federal land that could be utilized to build affordable housing, and another piece that looked at the sale of a historic post office building in Toronto as an example of the problem.
The Globe’s coverage also included a data-driven story that showed a federal program designed to create affordable rental housing was in fact resulting in units that are not affordable.
A feature published in June of last year showed that the University of Guelph was admitting far more first-year students than its residences could accommodate, heaping pressure on the city, while a piece the following month examined why Canada is struggling to attract young people to skilled construction trades.
“Explanatory journalism is in more demand than ever as we deal with a marked increase in volatility,” said The Globe and Mail’s editor-in-chief, David Walmsley.
“Making sense of the world is what journalism can do and winning this award against global competitors is a significant recognition of The Globe’s commitment to accurate storytelling.”
The Globe was also nominated in the same Explanatory Reporting category for its coverage of the United States’ trade war with Canada and its other trading partners.