Nicole Santa Cruz
Nicole Santa Cruz is a reporter covering issues of inequality in the Southwest.
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Nicole Santa Cruz is a reporter covering issues of inequality in the Southwest.
She joined ProPublica from the Los Angeles Times, where she spent nearly 12 years as a staff writer. As lead reporter on the Times’ Homicide Report, a groundbreaking public service project that documents every homicide victim in Los Angeles County, she reported on the lives of hundreds of people, highlighting neighborhoods that were disproportionately affected by violence and uncovering trends, including an increase in women being killed even as officials hailed a decline in murders. Santa Cruz also assembled a first-of-its-kind database of county prosecutor memos detailing fatal police encounters.
She began her career on the Times’ national desk, from which she was dispatched to the swamps of Louisiana to cover the BP oil spill and to her hometown of Tucson, Arizona, to write about the 2011 mass shooting at an event held by then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
Santa Cruz’s work at ProPublica focuses on investigating the impact of inequities on marginalized communities. She is based in Phoenix.
Dozens of People Died in Arizona Sober Living Homes as State Officials Fumbled Medicaid Fraud Response
Arizona officials acknowledged that a fraud scheme targeting Indigenous people with addictions cost taxpayers $2.5 billion. But they haven’t accounted publicly for the number of deaths tied to the scheme.
What I Learned Reporting in Cities That Take Belongings From Homeless People
Some cities take people’s belongings — ignoring their own policies and court orders — and then fail to store them. Our reporting shows there are more effective and compassionate ways to deal with homeless encampments.
“I Have Lost Everything”: The Toll of Cities’ Homeless Sweeps
Cities often take belongings — including important documents and irreplaceable mementos — when they conduct sweeps of homeless encampments. ProPublica gave notecards to people across the country so they could explain what they lost in their own words.
Cities Say They Store Property Taken From Homeless Encampments. People Rarely Get Their Things Back.
Storage programs are meant to protect people’s property rights and allow them to reclaim their possessions. But they rarely accomplish either objective, according to a ProPublica investigation of cities with the largest homeless populations.
Nevada Says It Worked Out the Kinks in Its New Voter System in Time for The Election, but Concerns Remain
After recent practice runs showed significant problems in transferring data accurately, the battleground state’s new centralized voter registration system will get its first real-world test in a major presidential election.
Swept Away
From birth certificates to loved ones’ ashes, these are just some of the belongings cities take when they clear homeless encampments.
U.S. Supreme Court Ruling Will Allow More Aggressive Homeless Encampment Removals
The court upheld a ban on camping in Grants Pass, Oregon, empowering local governments to punish people for living outside. ProPublica found that some cities are discarding homeless people’s property despite policies to preserve their belongings.
Judge Lifts Order That Mandated Albuquerque Stop Throwing Away Homeless People’s Belongings
A district judge stood by his previous finding that the city has seized and destroyed personal property during its homeless encampment removals but said a pending Supreme Court ruling could make his order “unworkable.”
Have You Experienced Homelessness? Do You Work With People Who Have? Connect With Our Reporters.
We’re working with journalists in New York, Maine and Oregon on projects related to homelessness. We’re also interested in how cities have further criminalized sleeping outside. Learn more about our work and how to get in touch.
Albuquerque Is Throwing Out the Belongings of Homeless People, Violating City Policy
The city has violated a court order and its own policies by discarding the personal property of thousands of homeless people, who have lost medications, birth certificates, IDs, treasured family photos and the ashes of loved ones.
Utah Child Care Providers Are Struggling. Lawmakers Haven’t Helped.
Legislators ended their session without making a direct investment in child care. Instead, they loosened regulations on unlicensed care, a move that operators, parents and other advocates say is unsafe.