The nonprofit newsroom expands staff to support its in-depth reporting on New York City housing issues, and launches a new beat focused exclusively on NYCHA.

City Limits’ Executive Editor Jeanmarie Evelly announced the hiring Wednesday of two journalists:

Emma Whitford joins City Limits as senior housing reporter at the end of February. Whitford was most recently a senior reporter for Law360, where she covered housing and real estate, including reporting on New York housing courts and the state’s handling of its pandemic rent relief program. Whitford was previously a reporter at Gothamist and has freelanced extensively, with bylines in the New York Daily News, The Intercept, Curbed, TIME, Documented NY and the Queens Daily Eagle.

“I’m excited and humbled to be joining City Limits—a publication I’ve long admired for recognizing that housing is a beat about people, not abstract policy,” Whitford said. “I can’t wait to get started.”

Tatyana Turner is a journalist and Bronx native who will begin covering NYCHA on Feb. 13. Turner was most recently a breaking news and general assignment reporter for the Chicago Tribune, where she covered the city’s food and restaurant scene. Before that, she was a corps member with Report for America at the Baltimore Sun, where she reported on African American neighborhoods for the paper’s “Black Life and Culture” beat. Turner is a graduate of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, where she studied multimedia reporting and covered New York City public housing.

“My earliest years were spent in NYCHA, so it is an honor more than a challenge to be a NYCHA reporter for City Limits. I am keenly aware of the hardships and the hidden gems that reside within public housing,” said Turner. “There are at least 339,000 stories within a city of 8 million people that I am eager to have the opportunity to tell.”

Executive Director Marjorie Martay said, “We’re thrilled to have these talented journalists join the amazing City Limits team.”

Send story ideas and tips to:
Emma Whitford, senior housing reporter: Emma@citylimits.org 
Tatyana Turner, NYCHA reporter: Tatyana@citylimits.org

Founded in 1976, City Limits provides in-depth, investigative coverage of city policy with a focus on housing, homelessness, land use, climate resiliency and more. In addition to award-winning reporting, City Limits has since 2015 operated CLARIFY, a paid journalism training program for New York City high school students. The organization is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit supported by reader donations, ads, and foundations including support by New York Community Trust, Trinity Church Wall Street, Neighborhoods First Fund , Revson Foundation, Pinkerton Foundation, and Google News Initiative.