Speaker Series: Kevin Fagan, Chronicle Reporter

Kevin Fagan is a longtime reporter at The San Francisco Chronicle. He specializes in enterprise news-feature writing and breaking news, taking particular pleasure in ferreting out stories others might not find — from profiling the desperate lives of homeless drug addicts to riding the rails with hobos, finding people who sleep in coffins and detailing the intricacies of hunting down serial killers. From 2003 to 2006, Kevin was the only beat reporter in the United States covering homelessness full time.

In an opinion piece on reporting about homelessness, Kevin Fagan wrote:  “Standing on your own and not giving ‘handouts’ to ‘freeloaders’ is a core American value. But most health providers will tell you that unless you give housing and services to the homeless, you will not be able to help them overcome the crippling problems that put them on the street – and that housing and counseling people in a controllable environment is a lot cheaper than letting them sleep outside, where they require more expensive attention from emergency health and law enforcement agencies.”