This is 99% Invisible. I'm Roman Mars.

In December of 2020, 99% Invisible released a special mini series called According to Need. It was a riveting and

revelatory exploration of the complex systems in place to help homeless people find

housing in the Bay Area. Former 99 p. I. Senior producer Katie Mangles spent two years

reporting the story for us and a couple weeks ago we learned that the series

received a DuPont Columbia Award honoring the best in journalism. In

celebration we are replaying the first couple stories from

according to need. Plus I'll catch up with Katie Mingle who now works at a new podcast

venture called, what's my name right here? Serial? Serial. Never heard of it.

But first I want to start with congratulations, Katie, on winning the DuPont Columbia Award.

Thank you.

So exciting.

That's amazing. What does it look like?

It looks like a big heavy baton that you could use to like bludgeon a burglar.

With silver. a burglar. It's silver, it's really heavy. It's a solid thing to hold.

So in celebration of, according to need, winning the DuPont Columbia Award, we're going to represent

the prologue in the first episode and then we should chat a little bit afterward to see if there's

any updates on the rest of the series.

Great, yeah.

I live in the north part of Oakland, near the border of Berkeley and Emoryville.

Like other gentrifying places, this one was recently given a cut-see name

by real estate agents hoping to attract new people to the area.

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