Link to article: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/feb/05/homeless-australians-are-dying-at-44-on-average-in-hidden-crisis
The article “Homeless Australians are dying at age 44 on average in hidden crisis” reveals a huge gap in life expectancy for homeless people in Australia through an investigation of more than 600 death cases – which shows systematic flaws. By using both graphs and statistics to visualise the numbers for the audience and by interviewing survivors and experts, the article helps the reader to gain a further understanding of the situation for the homeless people in Australia. I think it is a good example of how easily understood visualisations and graphs, when combined with the body of the article, can make data journalism a great tool for explaining an issue while also revealing it. It becomes even more interesting and important when the article also highlights the high numbers of Indigenous people among the deceased, as well as the government’s reluctance to even count the number of homelessness-related deaths, making the problem invisible.