Manchester homelessness reporting wins national recognition

A group of reporters with a shared experience of homelessness and unfit housing have scooped a National award for their work shining a spotlight on the issues surrounding their lived experiences.

Unheard Voices is made up of journalists in the Manchester area who came together to use journalism to share the challenges of homelessness in the city.

They have now collected the Reporting Homelessness prize from the Orwell Foundation. The team is made up of Karl Brown, Debbie Cuthbert, Stuart Potts and David Winter.

The team came together in 2022, and started to collect and share their stories of the housing emergency, finally publishing two co-created pieces of work in summer 2023.

In their entry, they say that Unheard Voices want society to see people experiencing homelessness and unfit housing as humans, rather than numbers.

“By telling their stories, and their truth, they want to transform how the housing emergency is perceived, challenging stereotypes and breaking down stigma,” the team said.

One of their biggest projects was the Manchester Maze, which used immersive storytelling to guide readers through what it’s like to be homeless in Manchester — and how quickly it can impact anyone.

They also created the Unheard Voices website, which includes 38 reports on various aspects of unfit housing or homelessness.

They have beens supported by homesless charity Shelter and On Our Radar, a specialist group of creatives who help people from unheard groups tell their stories.