ST. LOUIS — Elliott Davis has used his social media presence to shine a spotlight on the crisis of homelessness in St. Louis, helping hundreds of people find homes and changing lives.

Over the past 45 years, Elliott Davis has covered government waste on television for his award-winning “You Paid For It” reports. Starting around 2016, he started using his social media posts to shine a spotlight on the crisis of homelessness on the streets of St. Louis. There are now over 170,000 Facebook fans who followed into the biting cold and searing heat and he covered the issue nearly every day.

In 2019, Davis won the regional Murrow Award for excellence in social media. Winning a Murrow Award signifies excellence in broadcast news, continuing Edward R. Murrow’s legacy of setting high standards in the profession. Davis says he is retiring on August 2, 2024. We’re revisiting some of his career highlights.

Many of Elliott’s reports on the homeless are only on social media. His Facebook posts have changed lives. You may have seen this report on one woman who went viral after asking for help on his Facebook page. The clip reached millions of people, many of them living in the St. Louis area. Strangers drove for hundreds of miles to help her. He has personally helped many other people living in the streets.

Davis also covered the issue of the homeless extensively on-air. He has aired reports on television questioning the mayor’s decision to close a prominent shelter.

In 2019, a manilla envelope was placed in Elliott Davis’ “You Paid For It” inbox. It contained several handwritten letters from homeless people. The notes thank him for the coverage and “defending people that others choose to forget.”

Another example of his coverage is about a homeless couple who were sleeping in several area parks with their 5 and 6-year-old children. They now have a home. Their interview with FOX 2’s Elliott Davis on Facebook went viral in 2018. He put them up in a motel for over 15 days.

One of the Facebook fans, Cassandra Logan, saw posts about the couple on his Facebook page. She offered a home for the family to live in. Davis paid for the family’s cost of moving in.

Those are only a few of the examples of his advocacy for homeless people living in the St. Louis area. You can see more stories on the topic here. Don’t forget to follow Elliott Davis on Facebook.