BridgeDetroit and Detroit Free Press reporter Nushrat Rahman has been chosen for a prestigious investigative reporting fellowship.
Rahman is one of three journalists nationwide selected for the 2027 Chauncey Bailey Fellowship, a yearlong program awarded by the journalism organization Investigative Reporters and Editors. The program provides specialized training, mentorship and resources to help journalists pursue ambitious investigative projects that serve their communities.
The fellowship will support Rahman’s examination of conditions in Detroit’s rental housing market, an issue with significant implications for residents struggling with housing affordability, poverty and homelessness.
HELP SHAPE THE STORY!
For this project, we’re interested in talking to anyone involved in Detroit’s rental ecosystem – tenants, landlords, developers, investors, building inspectors, advocates, city officials, and others. If you want to chat (including off the record or on background), please reach out: nrahman@freepress.com
A Detroit native, Rahman covers economic mobility, focusing on the barriers that prevent low-income families from achieving financial stability. Her reporting has explored homelessness, evictions, home repairs, water affordability and other issues affecting Detroit residents.
Her work reflects BridgeDetroit’s commitment to journalism that responds to residents’ questions, holds institutions accountable and helps Detroiters better understand the systems and decisions affecting their lives.
Through the fellowship, Rahman will receive training at an IRE Data Journalism Bootcamp, attend national investigative journalism conferences and work with a network of experienced investigative reporters who will provide guidance throughout her project.
Rahman’s selection recognizes her commitment to community-centered reporting and creates an opportunity to deepen BridgeDetroit’s coverage of one of the city’s most pressing challenges: ensuring Detroit residents have access to safe, stable and affordable housing.
“I’m honored to have been selected as one of three 2027 Chauncey Bailey Fellows through IRE. I am looking forward to carrying on Bailey’s legacy through my reporting project,” Rahman said.
“Throughout the next year, I’ll be examining Detroit’s rental conditions – an issue we’ve been reporting on at the Free Press and BridgeDetroit for several years. This fellowship will give both newsrooms an opportunity to dig even deeper. I’m looking forward to gaining investigative skills, learning from IRE’s vast network of expert journalists, and bringing it all back to serve our readers and Detroiters.”
Rahman previously was selected as a 2024 National Press Foundation Widening the Pipeline fellow and completed a data fellowship through the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism, where she reported on Rx Kids, a growing cash assistance program for mothers and babies in Michigan.
She has also earned first-place honors from the Detroit chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists for feature writing, engagement-driven reporting and collaborative coverage.
Rahman graduated from Wayne State University and Columbia Journalism School and joined the Detroit Free Press through a Report for America fellowship.
She joins two other journalists in the 2027 fellowship class: Daisy Zavala Magaña of RANGE Media in Spokane, Washington, who will investigate farmworker exposure to toxic pesticides, and Miguel Torres of Caló News in Phoenix, Arizona, who will examine fraudulent immigration-service providers.
The fellowship honors Chauncey Bailey, an Oakland journalist who was killed in 2007 while pursuing an investigative story. Established in 2019 and renamed in Bailey’s honor in 2023, the program seeks to strengthen investigative journalism by supporting journalists of color and expanding the perspectives represented in the field.