The Lens, a two-time Knight Community Information Challenge winner, has won a prestigious national Edward R. Murrow Award.

The New Orleans online investigative site won the Audio Investigative Reporting Award for “One homeowner’s travails: Even after more than six years, family can’t move into ‘new’ house.”

The report, produced in cooperation with the G.W. Williams Center for Independent Journalism, investigated the story of a New Orleans family that was persuaded by a bank to use its Katrina insurance settlement to pay off the mortgage of their home, leaving  no money to repair it.

The report brought into focus the problem of more than 40,000 blighted homes in New Orleans and illustrated how the recovery process has left people who lack financial literacy homeless.

With support from the Greater New Orleans Foundation, The Lens was a 2010 and 2011 winner of the Knight Community Information Challenge. The Lens is an independent nonprofit news site dedicated to in-depth, local reporting.

The Radio Television Digital News Association announced the awards Tuesday. Nearly all of the winners are traditional broadcast or newspaper outlets.

By Michele McLellan, Knight Community Information Circuit Rider