Delaney Cleans Up on Homeless Journalism Award

And the hits just keep on coming, folks. Washington City Paper contributor Arthur Delaney has won the Street Sense David Pike Excellence in Journalism award for “Median Man,” his District Line story (Sept. 7, 2007) about “Billi,” a man living off I-395 under the 9th Street overpass. Thousands of commuters passed Billi every day, as he made his life dropping furniture from the overpass and collecting weeds he thought were good to eat. He was eventually kicked out.

Delaney, who has been writing for City Paper for several years, has penned some sweet stories about people in nontraditional D.C. dwellings. If you like “Median Man,” check out “Crash Time” about a gentleman living in the Days Inn parking lot at New York Avenue and Bladensburg Road. “I put the seat back and went to sleep,” says Terry Gibbs. “I slept like a baby, and I’ve been here ever since.”

The Street Sense award honors Pike, a 40-year journalist, former board member, and volunteer for D.C.’s respected homeless paper who died unexpectedly last year. The ceremony is this Thursday at the National Press Club, where Delaney will be asked to say a few words alongside keynote speakers Courtland Milloy of the Washington Post and Phil Mangano of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness.

Nice work, Arthur!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 10th, 2008 at 1:10 pm and is filed under Awards, City Paper, Homelessness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.