San Diego’s Journalist of the Year Can’t Smell, But Sniffs Out News Quite Well

Like a bloodhound tracking a distant scent, Lisa Halverstadt tenaciously pursues stories of human suffering and official malfeasance.

As Voice of San Diego’s senior investigative reporter, Halverstadt doggedly uncovered the hepatitis A epidemic in the region’s homeless population, key parts of the 101 Ash Street scandal and other shames of the city.

But to Natalie Raschke and her family of four kids and a working husband living out of an RV — and being constantly ticketed — the reporter was something more.

“My little angel,” she calls her.

For 4 1/2 months in 2022, Halverstadt hung out with the Raschkes three or four times a week for at least two hours at a time. Along with photojournalist Peggy Peattie, she became a part of the family.

Raschke gained a voice through Halverstadt’s coverage — literally.

After the woman’s testimony at the San Diego City Council, Councilman Sean Elo-Rivera — who once lived in a vehicle for a time while he was in law school — made a motion to have city staff explore potential safe parking locations in every City Council district and establish family-friendly zones at each site.

For that kind of coverage, Halverstadt recently was named San Diego Journalist of the Year.

One irony is that Halverstadt, until recently, wasn’t eligible for the honor. As president (twice) of the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists, which names the JOY, she couldn’t be picked.

But Halverstadt, now off the board after 10 years, was OK for selection this year.

Another irony?

Halverstadt is no human bloodhound.

“I was born without a sense of smell,” she said in answer to my recurring query of “tell me something people don’t know about you.”

“Doctors haven’t been interested in testing my ability to smell, but since you’ll probably wonder — yes, I can taste! I like to say that my lack of a sense of smell sometimes allows me to see people rather than smell them.”

Disabled or not, Halverstadt is a hero to formerly homeless Natalie Raschke, now living in a Mission Valley apartment.

Raschke Seeks Reporter

“I didn’t ask to be homeless,” she said. “I didn’t create COVID. I didn’t, you know, create all these [rules] where we can’t park anywhere, you know, like just trying to survive and raise productive children to be a part of this community.”

Desperate for help after jumping through every hoop and fruitlessly contacting Mayor Todd Gloria, Raschke sought a reporter.

“Everything kept leading me to Lisa,” she said. “She was put in my path at the right time that I needed somebody to be there. I felt like I wasn’t being heard. … [Lisa is] really truly why certain people are here on this Earth.”

Another subject of Halverstadt’s reporting, who prefers to be known as Vic, first spoke to her via Twitter, now X — “at first to just express my gratitude at the humanity in her reporting.”

Eventually, Halverstadt invited Vic to take part in a 2023 Politest panel on what it’s like to be homeless.

“She would not let me back out and insisted I do it,” he said. “I could not turn her down, even though I fell the day before and broke a rib in my back.”

He calls her “a whiz kid,” charming and “easy on the eyes.” In talking with Halverstadt, 38, “I can say I’ve met maybe three people who know the San Diego homeless / homelessness issues as well as she.”

Via email, Vic added: “Lisa has been groomed for greatness from a youngster and … hasn’t reached her peak at all yet. There is plenty more to come. I sometimes worry about the fickle nature of the news business today and yet Lisa is undeterred and on a mission she seems most dedicated to.”

So what’s the scoop behind this storyteller?

Parents Born in Parallel

Born in Cincinnati to mechanic Eric Halverstadt and Pattie (Willig) Halverstadt, who worked for years in a physical therapy office, Lisa has a younger sibling, Jim, who founded a successful training and staffing consulting firm.

(Her parents were born on the same November day in 1957 — delivered by the same doctor in the same hospital, she’s said on social media.)

In grade school, teachers encouraged young Lisa.

“I recall two teachers urging me to work for the student paper because I was always pretty good at writing and very curious (read: nosy and literally trying to read documents on teachers’ desks upside down when I got bored by the third grade),” she said.

She got involved in her high school paper, loved it, and rose to editor in chief as a senior.

“I don’t remember many of the stories I wrote, but do recall one that had me testing multiple self-tanners,” she said. “It was a very streaky, orange few weeks!”

At age 12, on a family trip in Arizona, Lisa declared she’d live there one day.

“My parents laughed. I wasn’t kidding,” she said. “By my senior year in high school, they knew that I was eager to move out west. I joke that their last chance to keep me in state was in college. (I was lucky to get their support with tuition, something so many folks I know didn’t get so I am indebted to them for this.)”

In Ohio, Bowling Green State University stood out, she said. “It had a very good journalism school and I got a journalism scholarship to attend.”

She’s grateful for former professors Nancy Brendlinger and Smeeta Mishra, who encouraged her at key moments.

“I am also absolutely indebted to folks I met via The BG News, the student paper at BGSU which truly got me where I am today. Adviser Bob Bortel was such a gift to all of us. Bob Moser, the editor in chief when I joined the paper, noticed my hustle soon after I joined The BG News and did so much to teach me about journalism,” she said.

“Bob also gave me and the whole BG News crew many excellent pep talks about the power of journalism. Both Bobs pushed me in ways I am immensely grateful for. BG News colleagues Dave Herrera, Tim Sampson and Patrick Maynard were also great confidants who always kept me on my toes and striving to be sharper. Their support helped me end my BG News career as editor in chief, which was such an honor.”

Then Arizona beckoned.

Her first job after graduating in 2008 came after a Pulliam Fellowship at The Arizona Republic in Phoenix.

“I started on the public safety beat, which was my dream job at the time,” she said. “Then, in June 2011, my editors asked me to take on a beat I never envisioned: the ownership of the team formerly known as the Phoenix Coyotes and the financial ramifications for the city of Glendale, Ariz., which had a bet big on sports.”

‘Figure It Out’

She calls that an adventure.

“I initially didn’t think I had what it took to take on this beat and said so, but Venita Hawthorne James, then one of my editors who remains one of my heroes, told me: ‘You don’t know much about this now, but now you’re motivated to figure it out — and I know that you will.'”

Halverstadt says she replays that statement in her head with every new “overwhelming assignment,” including 101 Ash, the city’s real-estate albatross under several regimes.

In Phoenix, she began making spreadsheets breaking down the impacts of proposed Coyotes arena deals that would come with significant city costs. She got into an argument with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman in a box at an hockey game when he refused to answer one of her questions.

“I was honored to press for answers on behalf of Glendale residents who were footing the bill for the arena and seeing the city make massive payments to the NHL two years in a row to manage the taxpayer-funded arena. I also engaged with fans all over the world constantly on social media, which was fun. I loved answering their questions and trying to help sports fans understand complicated local government things.”

She admits to being a Zonie, visiting San Diego often and loving the weather and city. In 2012, she applied for a job at Voice of San Diego.

“I was familiar with its nonprofit news model and loved Voice’s focus on telling the most important stories not being told elsewhere,” she said. “The open position also called for the sort of engagement I had been doing on the Coyotes ownership beat, so it sounded like a natural fit.”

She thinks she had a leg up on her competition because San Diego was dealing with its own stadium drama, “and I was so passionate about engaging with readers as Scott [Lewis, the CEO] had already done for years on social media.”

She learned of the SPJ JOY award via text from colleague Jakob McWhinney.

“I was initially very confused as I had taken a buffer day off after returning from a trip to Sedona with friends and ended up testing positive for COVID that day,” she said. “Jakob had posted a DM in Voice’s online messaging system, but I was already in bed at that point and not at all online.”

She soon asked McWhinney what he was talking about.

“I love that Jakob was the first to tell me as I mentored him while he was a Voice intern and got to know his heart,” she said. “Jakob cares deeply about the issues I report on and brings the same heart and soul approach to his journalism that I do.”

Since her parents, in Indiana, were in bed, Lisa first shared the news with Amanda Penharlow, a local human relations professional, texting: “Omg I just found out San Diego SPJ named me journalist of the year. In other news, I took NyQuil about 20 minutes ago so I’ll probably be knocked out soon.”

Halverstadt added: “Amanda has been such an amazing friend to me throughout much of my time in San Diego and is the sort of friend who’s been there with me to celebrate the highs and help me dig out of the lows so it was so gratifying to share this with her. I truly don’t believe I would have gotten this award without her support over the years.”

Halverstadt marks her 12th anniversary with Voice — as senior staffer — in late September.

Lover of Songs, Food

Her Instagram profile reveals her to be a “Singer of random songs. Eater of many foods.”

Which songs? What foods?

“My friends will be so unsurprised by this answer: Everything at Hanna’s Gourmet. I’ve been going to Hanna’s since 2013 and my friends say I’m president of Hanna’s fan club.”

She especially loves the eatery’s carrot cake, “melt-in-your-mouth rosemary chicken sandwich, curries and biscuits and gravy — and trying whatever new recipe Hanna’s offering up.”

If she were in the Padres lineup, her walk-up song would “definitely be” Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger” — calling it her theme song for life.

Other favorites: “Greatest Love of All” and “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” by Whitney Houston, “Fancy” by Reba McEntire and Jimi Hendrix’s rendition of “All Along the Watchtower.”

Halverstadt says one of her stress relievers, “and truly my form of meditation.” is singing along with the music.

“My mind isn’t quiet enough for meditation…. I also love karaoke, and in the years before COVID, I’d do an annual karaoke party for my birthday.”

Her go-to karaoke songs have included Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots are Made for Walking” and the B-52s’ “Love Shack.”

“My goal with karaoke is always to get others singing along so I pick songs I think the crowd will enjoy,” she said. “Related: I grew up in a very musical family and love singing with others. For example, My grandpa Edgar Willig was known to break out into song — favorites included “God Bless America” — in restaurants and public places.

“It embarrassed me as a teenager, but it’s part of who I am.”

Unembarrassed is Raschke, who nominated Halverstadt for JOY after reading about the award on social media.

“They didn’t expect nothing from me. It was for the humanity of it all and that is rare. … Four months is a long time to commit to people and follow and watch how we live,” said Raschke, now “paying it forward” by working for the nonprofit Lived Experience Advisers. “Lisa is the real deal.”

This interview was conducted by email:

Times of San Diego: How did homelessness become your trademark beat?

Lisa Halverstadt: In 2015, my editors asked if I’d be interested in covering a beat focused on nonprofits and causes including homelessness and Balboa Park. On the homelessness front, we saw the problem getting worse but much of the coverage focused on individual initiatives (like Connections Housing around that time) vs. on communitywide efforts and/or any progress (or lack thereof) in addressing the cause.

I didn’t have any knowledge about homelessness when I got on this beat but as I dug in, it quickly became a passion. The more I learned about the problem, the more I realized that so many people I met on the beat were significantly underestimated and undervalued by their fellow residents and that these folks were being failed by society and systems designed to help them.

In journalism school, I loved the well-known maxim that journalism should afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted. The homelessness beat has allowed me to do just that and it’s been so rewarding.

I meet so many wonderful people who are so eager to help me do my job. Many of these folks are constantly judged by society but have shown me they care deeply about their communities. Many have made clear that their motivation for talking to me, taking time to help me track down records or making time to meet with me or show me something is to help others.

Are Mayor Todd Gloria and San Diego city officials fulfilling their promises to address homeless issues?

I’ll defer to my coverage on this one.

How do you regard Bill Walton’s legacy on the homeless issue? Was coverage of his death too forgiving of his efforts to remove the homeless to a place like George Mullen’s un-sited Sunbreak Ranch?

I don’t really feel it’s my place to offer my opinion. I’ll stick to the facts.

What other subjects would you like to tackle? Or seem undercovered now?

There are so many subjects that deserve more coverage. Foremost in my mind are San Diego’s South Bay and East County communities. They absolutely deserve more in-depth coverage and accountability reporting. (I am so excited Voice is hiring a South Bay reporter and can’t wait to see what they do.)

I also don’t think local media outlets do enough reporting on the county government, which has a very large budget and the mandate (and funding) to address some of our region’s foremost problems including homelessness, our behavioral health crisis and more.

I hope to spend more time reporting on county government myself in the months to come.

What were the most substantive policy or legislative reforms sparked by your reporting? Or measures coming up?

Here are some things I recall:

MTS approved a bolstered fare-evasion diversion program after my reporting on the devastating impacts of fare evasion tickets on homeless and low-income people:

The Regional Task Force on Homelessness updated its point-in-time count based on my reporting and analysis of SDPD enforcement data.

A good number of Voice reporters have moved to other outlets. Have you looked at other media employers? Or been recruited by them? How long do you expect to stay at Voice?

I measure my success based on impact — and right now, I am doing work that’s having an impact. I have heard from a few other media outlets over the years but have ultimately decided to remain at Voice because I’ve felt I owed it to my readers to continue delivering on the narratives I was/am focused on.

If at any point, someone can make the case to me that I can make more of an impact as an editor or working at another outlet, I may consider another opportunity. For now, I am all in as a senior investigative reporter for Voice of San Diego.

Outside the homeless stories, what’s your best work — especially stuff people don’t know about? 101 Ash Street revelations?

I am proud of my methodical focus and organizational skills that paid off on the 101 Ash St. beat. There were so many angles to consider it was overwhelming. I literally combed through tens of thousands of records in the process of analyzing what happened. (Kudos to former colleague Jesse Marx for teaming up with me to review so many of them!)

I gathered everything I got in a few documents so I could search them whenever I got something new — and there were literally thousands of entries in these documents.

I started to feel like I was starting to put together the puzzle when I revealed that the 101 Ash lease was essentially a carbon copy of the earlier Civic Center Plaza lease. I later became obsessed with money that couldn’t be accounted for in the Ash deal and began to wonder if I’d discover the same in the CCP deal.

Those revelations led to public records requests for emails going back to the CCP deal, which made me more interested in former volunteer city real estate adviser Jason Hughes’ role.

I published a story about Hughes’ role in the two deals in early 2021 and months later, he acknowledged he was paid a previously undisclosed (at least publicly) $9.4 million for his work on the two deals.

I would later deliver scoops revealing that he had secret contracts with the city’s landlord for his work on the two deals and, later, that Hughes had told multiple city officials he wanted to be paid.

Those were just a couple of the bombshells. In 2023, Hughes agreed to pay the city $9.4 million in a settlement deals and around the same time, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor conflict-of-interest charge.

I’m also proud of my reporting — some of it with my friend and former colleague Jesse Marx —on Metropolitan Transit System fare enforcement policies that disproportionately burdened homeless and low-income riders.

One ticket for fare evasion could end up costing hundreds of dollars and most were never paid, only to later complicate matters for homeless people and low-income people as they tried to get off the street or try to buy a car or something.

I also revealed that MTS was regularly declining doctors’ recommendations that their patients with mental health conditions get reduced fares due to their disabilities. As I started questioning MTS about my findings, the agency committed to reforming this policy before I even published my story.

I am also proud of my coverage of the Coyotes ownership saga, in part because I truly began that beat with no knowledge of the subject and ended up becoming a go-to reporter on the topic. I fought hard for information for both taxpayers and fans.

In all cases, support from my editors and colleagues was so crucial to my success.

How has social media influenced your reporting? How do you deal with online critics of your work?

I see social media as another forum for journalism and love answering questions from readers there. I’ve also met many sources over the years over social media, especially on Twitter/X.

I usually engage with critics who I can tell have genuine questions or concerns and often end up appreciating the feedback I get from those interactions. I don’t make time for those who seem to just be spewing hatred and who don’t seem to see any humanity in the people I write about.

Thankfully, most of the comments I get on social media fall in the former category. I admittedly don’t spend much time reading comments on stories but respond to them when I see a specific question I can answer.

Your alma mater, Mother of Mercy High School, closed in 2018. How has your Catholic faith and education contributed to your journalism?

I was raised in a loving and conscientious Catholic family and went to Catholic school for 12 years. I think my Catholic upbringing and education helped fuel my focus on public service and using my talents to help others. Journalism was and is my way to serve. It’s my vocation.

You once wrote: “As a reporter, I often talk to people facing overwhelming challenges. Each time, I’m haunted by the fact that I can drive home and escape it. They can’t.” How do you balance the contradictions of life — keeping personal feelings and work separate?

This has and always will be tough. I don’t think it’s a disqualifying bias to say I believe that homelessness is a surging societal failure that should make us all uncomfortable. I also firmly believe that journalists can’t and shouldn’t check their humanity at the door when they go to work.

I manage the contradiction you mentioned by focusing on what I can do to help the people I write about at a macro level by highlighting the realities of their plights and reporting critically on solutions and responses meant to help them.

I also make a point to treat my homeless sources with respect, dignity and kindness – just as I do everyone else. Sadly, many homeless San Diegans have told me over the years this makes me stand out from other fellow citizens and journalists.

Many times, folks have told me I was the first person they talked to that day or that no one has treated them as kindly as I did in recent history. That breaks my heart – and it’s something I keep in mind every time I interact with my unhoused sources.

(Because folks often ask: I typically don’t give folks food or cash, but there have been instances where I’ve bought someone coffee, a burrito or water because it was the right thing to do in the moment. I also often share phone numbers and addresses for service providers and agencies that oversee them to people who call me seeking help navigating the system. In those fairly limited instances, I’ve known there might be a need to disclose that if I wrote a story featuring that person.)

I feel duty-bound to say here that editors and news managers need to recognize the toll that this work can take and invest in training and support for their staff.

I owe kudos to my former editor Andy Keatts, who a couple times encouraged me to take a personal day off to relax after I delivered a particularly hard story and to Voice of San Diego for organizing a training with Columbia University’s Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma to give Voice staff more tools to deal with hard stories.

My current editor, Andrea Lopez-Villafana, has also been very supportive.

Something I’m open about: I have proactively sought therapy and counseling multiple times over the years to give myself a space to talk about my own feelings about the subjects I report on.

It’s something I am proud of despite the stigma that admitting this still has for some in our industry. I strongly encourage other journalists to seek out those resources and believe newsrooms should cover the cost of therapy and counseling if it’s specifically tied to their journalists’ work.

Why have you been so involved with San Diego SPJ? Ever consider getting into the pipeline for national president (like Matt Hall and Lynn Walsh)?

I am passionate about local journalism, government transparency and supporting other journalists, especially aspiring and young reporters. San Diego SPJ allowed me to focus on all three. I haven’t considered getting involved nationally as my work in San Diego keeps me pretty busy.

How many CPRA or FOIA requests do you have outstanding now?

What I can quickly nail down: Right now I’ve got 15 active PRA requests in the city of San Diego’s NextRequest system. And per the system, I’ve made 198 requests since the city moved to that system in 2018.

Does San Diego have enough media outlets, and reporters, working on homeless stories?

Definitely not. Blake Nelson of the Union-Tribune is among the local reporters doing a good job on the beat, but there aren’t enough of us. I often joke that I could have two clones and we’d still be incredibly busy — and disappointed about the stories we didn’t have time to cover.

In college, you once wrote about the Freshman 15 — weight gain, even finding a student who put on 30 pounds. How do you deal with job stresses? How do you stay in shape? What sports or exercise might you do?

Ha. I think that may have been one of my first BG News stories. Cringe. Working out, eating healthy and getting good sleep are so important.

I do high-intensity interval training workouts five days a week and am known for eating broccoli and beans for lunch almost every day — and I actually love it. I also really savor weekend walks and hikes that allow me to completely unplug. I also love walking during the workweek whenever I can make it happen.

Music has also been a key stress reliever and processing tool for me.

What else do people not know about you?

Fun fact that’s meaningful: I’ve technically got two “disabilities” that have turned out to be superpowers. As far as I know, I was born without a sense of smell, which has turned out to be a blessing on the homelessness beat. (Doctors haven’t been interested in testing my ability to smell but since you’ll probably wonder, yes, I can taste!)

‘I like to say that my lack of a sense of smell sometimes allows me to see people rather than smell them, though I know most of the folks I talk to work very hard to get regular showers. I also was diagnosed with ADHD in my early elementary school years.

There are some stigmas out there about ADHD, but my experience with it has made me more empathetic and contributed to my focus when I’m onto a big story. I get energy bursts and can hyperfocus when I think I’m onto something, especially if I think it can make a difference for someone.

Halverstadt will accept her award June 27 at the San Diego SPJ’s annual dinner. Information is here.