Author: Joel John Roberts (Joel John Roberts)

A year ago, the rumors were subtle but alarming. A deadly virus began its global spread and landed in California. Whispers of quarantines, stay-at-home orders and airports shutting down traveled quickly. The homeless services and housing agency I lead had nearly 700 workers spread across the state at the time. We just didn’t know what...

I sit on two regional Continuum of Care (CoC) boards in California — Santa Clara County and San Diego County — and in both bodies I voted to not count people who are homeless this year. The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) created the Continuum of Care Program in order to funnel their resources through...

Who would have imagined that nurses and doctors would fall into the same category as grocery store clerks and meatpacking workers? They all became essential workers, a term we used rarely before March. Of course, who would have imagined a worldwide pandemic would arrive on the shores of America, shutting down society? I remember when...

Four years. Four long years of demonizing the opposition. Sadly, this has become part of the “new normal,” just like Zoom video calls, take-out fine dining, mask wearing (at least for some), WFH (work from home) and demonizing anyone who disagrees with your personal, righteous worldview. You don’t agree with my progressive political agenda? Then...

A recent UC Berkeley poll asked voters to rate Governor Gavin Newsom’s performance. More than half (55%) said he was doing a poor or very poor job on homelessness, and only 11% gave him good or excellent marks. For almost 25 years, I have been leading a homeless services and housing development agency that operates in...

The long, winding line of vehicles could very well be interpreted in many different ways. Perhaps it is a queue of people anxiously waiting to enter a stadium parking lot to see their favorite sports teams in action? The exhaust from the cars’ pipes heat up an already hot summer afternoon. Or maybe they are...

Several years ago, long before a deadly pandemic swept across Silicon Valley and the rest of the world, Frank lost his job, then his home, and sadly, ended up being homeless. He didn’t look like the stereotypical image of a homeless man. In fact, he looked more like a middle-aged uncle who fell on hard...

It is a simple, family-friendly app that keeps me connected to family members, current friends and acquaintances from years past — Facebook connects me to my relational world around me. What’s not to like about clicking the like button? Who doesn’t love to see photos of your friends on vacation, your cousins eating the perfect...

Twenty years ago, the solution to homelessness seemed to be so simple. People who found themselves homeless would come to our agency in need of a bed. We would place them in a transitional housing program for a few months while helping them find a new job. Their only commitment was to adhere to a...

We thought that we survived the worst. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost half of its value within months, and unemployment was at 10 percent. No, I am not referring to today’s crisis. Thirteen years ago, the “Great Recession” knocked our national economic and social stability dramatically off course. We were told this was all...