Joel John Roberts
Southern California
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Monday, February, 8, 2010
Is marriage the solution to poverty or is it the cause of poverty?

I tend to look at social issues with common sense, rather than some political bias. For example, if people have the physical and mental ability to work, should they receive public assistance for the rest of their lives? No. If a person has chronic mental or physical disabilities should they? Yes, if they have no other support. It’s the gray area, however, where society tends to clash, sometimes brutally. Typically, it’s the extremes on both the left and the right that bait each other. So when I read an opinion piece on Fox News supporting the position that marriage will lift people out of poverty, my stomach turns. Not because I’m some liberal communist ready to bash anything that Fox News puts out. But because I see, firsthand, the struggles that hurting families encounter. Most single parent impoverished families are the result of bad marriages or bad relationships. Young mothers who thought their husbands would stick around to care for them and their children. To tell these mothers that they should just get married so all of their problems will be solved, is exceedingly insulting. It’s like telling a 40-year-old life-long bachelor or bachelorette, why don’t you just get married. As if marriage is the answer to everything. And it’s not just about “dead-beat” dads. Females in a marriage relationship can be just as toxic as the male. We are all people, with emotional scars that can affect how we relate with others. In a perfect world, having an emotionally, economically, and physically supportive partner is definitely the ideal. Wouldn’t it be great if everyone grew up in an “Ozzie and Harriet Nelson” family? That 1950’s television sitcom of a perfect suburban family. In reality, however, it’s not that simple. Telling people that marriage is the answer to poverty, is in the same vein as stating that all impoverished people are lazy. It’s an ignorant perspective on poverty, because poverty and homelessness is complex. So many different factors—abuse, neglect, disabilities, to list only a few. Raising people out of poverty means developing both a societal social safety net, along with helping people to develop healthy, supportive relationships. Frankly, toxic relationships cause poverty, not singleness.
Homeless and Burned to Death
Joel John Roberts
I track hate crimes against homeless people across the country. Last week, I added John Robert McGraham to the list. He was doused with gasoline and set on fire at 3rd and Berendo streets, in the heart of Los Angeles, by an unknown assailant or assailants. He died. It happened close to where a homeless woman, Margaret Mitchell, was accidentally shot and killed by a police officer nine years ago, and not far from where homeless people were assaulted by four teenagers last year. Of course, Los Angeles is not the only locale for hatred. Homeless people have been murdered in Denver, Milwaukee and in Fort Lauderdale and Daytona Beach, Fla. The most recent study by the National Coalition for the Homeless documents 160 attacks on homeless...
We Can Solve Our Homeless Problem
Joel John Roberts
Over 20 years ago, I had recently graduated from Long Beach’s educational system - Newcomb, Marshall, Millikan and CSULB -and was anxious to help solve the small, but growing problem of homelessness in Long Beach and throughout the county. If you fast forward to the present, this "small" problem has grown into an enormous societal embarrassment, with nearly 73,000 people homeless in the county, and almost 4,000 people homeless in Long Beach. A visual example of this is Lincoln Park, home of Long Beach’s City Hall and, sadly, the address for dozens of chronically homeless people. You would think that after two decades, our society would have....
Dismantling L.A.'s 'Walled City'
Joel John Roberts
YEARS AGO I ventured into the Walled City, an infamous block of metropolitan high-rise decay in Kowloon, in the heart of Hong Kong. I felt like Alice falling into an urban rabbit hole. A majority of the 50,000 residents who lived on a mere 6.5 acres rarely saw the sun. Some narrow streets led to nowhere. Surrounded by a modern metropolis, the decayed turf was owned by the Chinese government during the time Hong Kong was ruled by Britain. With no clear political control, it was a lawless land ruled by gangs and drug dealers. Today, Los Angeles' skid row reminds me of the beginnings of the Walled City, once the most densely populated piece of land in the world. Ours is likely the most densely populated area of homelessness in the....
The Homeless and the Numbers Game
Joel John Roberts
The headlines said it all: 90,000 homeless in Los Angeles County. For most of us, we don`t need a slide rule to figure out that homelessness has increased. Anyone who exits a freeway off-ramp, who travels through our downtown neighborhoods or even visits our world-famous beaches knows that there are too many people in our community without homes. The counting of homelessness has always been hotly debated. Some want to exaggerate the number to encourage more funding for services; others want to diminish the number to deny that there really is a problem. For a decade we`ve argued over this number, as if it was some statistical problem rather than a human dilemma. So now we have a number, an official count. But in this homeless number
Ending Homelessness Profits Business
Joel John Roberts
National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week is November 16-22, when businesses everywhere should intensify the focus on the crisis of homelessness. Commerce plays an important role in contributing to our quality of life, so this is an especially good time — in this recent era of Enron, WorldCom and even Martha Stewart — for community and business leaders to accelerate their participation in ending the cycle of homelessness. We need corporate America’s partnership, its ability to develop strategies, its creative thinking, entrepreneurial spirit, capacity to hire employees and its willingness to invest in the community. With the unrestrained support of business, we are infinitely more likely to permanently move people without homes.
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Portraits of Success
As permanent supportive housing providers in Skid Row, we at the Skid Row Housing Trust, SRO Housing Corporation and the Downtown Women’s Center were deeply disheartened by Rev. Andy Bales’ attack on permanent housing linked to support services. When we heard he had concerns, signers of the letter sent to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa called to meet with Rev. Bales but, unfortunately, he has not answered our calls. We still hope we can find common ground. We believe that the best outcome for Skid Row will only occur if we join together in respectful dialogue. That said, we feel we must correct some errors in Rev. Bales post. The claim that “housing groups actually dissuade their employees from reporting the crimes or....

Author Alvidrez, Nelson & Watson
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Monday, February, 8, 2010
Shelter Partnership Joins Councilwoman Jan Perry on the Urban Land Institute's 1000 Homes Tour of Supportive, Permanent Housing for the Homeless

Shelter Partnership Joins Councilwoman Jan Perry on the Urban Land Institute's 1000 Homes Tour of Supportive, Permanent Housing for the Homeless

It is truly inspiring to have the opportunity to visit the agencies addressing homelessness on the front line and to see first-hand the life-changing work that is being done by so many dedicated people in our community. Last Saturday, I assisted in leading a tour organized by the Urban Land Institute of Los Angeles’ Young Leaders Group. The 1000 Homes Initiative is designed to educate the community—including developers, architects, students, elected officials and their staffs, and the general public—on the benefits of permanent, supportive housing as an important strategy for solving homelessness in our region. Led by Los Angeles Councilwoman Jan Perry, representing the 9th Council District, I joined more than 50 community members

Author Ruth Schwartz Monday, February, 8, 2010
Is marriage the solution to poverty or is it the cause of poverty?

Is marriage the solution to poverty or is it the cause of poverty?

I tend to look at social issues with common sense, rather than some political bias. For example, if people have the physical and mental ability to work, should they receive public assistance for the rest of their lives? No. If a person has chronic mental or physical disabilities should they? Yes, if they have no other support. It’s the gray area, however, where society tends to clash, sometimes brutally. Typically, it’s the extremes on both the left and the right that bait each other. So when I read an opinion piece on Fox News supporting the position that marriage will lift people out of poverty, my stomach turns. Not because I’m some liberal communist ready to bash anything that Fox News puts out. But because I see, firsthand, t

Author Joel John Roberts Saturday, February, 6, 2010
Book on homeless man and Los Angeles journalist is highlighted by Long Beach Book Week

Book on homeless man and Los Angeles journalist is highlighted by Long Beach Book Week

Imagine one city reading the same book. For the past nine years, the City of Long Beach’s Public Library Foundation encouraged the whole city to read one book at the same time. This year, the foundation chose the book, “The Soloist: A Lost Dream, An Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music.” Written by Los Angeles Times columnist, Steve Lopez, the book chronicles the journalist’s relationship with Nathaniel Ayers, a man who was once homeless on the tough streets of downtown Los Angeles. After numerous encounters with Ayers, Lopez discovers that this homeless man was once a promising classical bass student at New York’s Juilliard School of Music. The book is a moving narrative of how a successful journalist helps a homel

Author Joel John Roberts Thursday, February, 4, 2010
Why homelessness is decreasing while hunger and poverty is increasing

Why homelessness is decreasing while hunger and poverty is increasing

The numbers just don’t jive. Cities across the country, including those here in Los Angeles County, are proudly announcing that homelessness is reducing. Los Angeles recently released numbers showing that homelessness in this county of 88 cities was reduced by 38%. They reportedly document that a staggering 25,000 people are no longer homeless. Another city in the county known for being home to a large homeless population will announce soon that their homeless population has been reduced by 50% in a span of one year. What’s going on? Our country is experiencing the worst recession in a generation. One to two people out of ten do not have jobs. In Los Angeles County, one of very ten people are getting their food at food banks rather

Author Joel John Roberts Wednesday, February, 3, 2010
Long Beach does what Los Angeles could not--pass a Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness

Long Beach does what Los Angeles could not--pass a Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness

Five years later, and the City of Long Beach has done what Los Angeles has not been able to do—formally approve a “Ten Yen Year Plan to End Homelessness.” The Long Beach City Council unanimously voted to approve a plan designed by 450 local community members called, “Within Our Reach: A Community Partnership to Prevent and End Homelessness.” The plan includes five key strategies: housing, employment, support services, community involvement, and establishing outcomes. In early 2005, Long Beach stakeholders including business leaders, service providers, concerned citizens, advocates, and faith leaders, met on a regular basis to design a plan to help the city reduce and end homelessness. Although some people were skeptical of such a..

Author LA Homelessness Examiner Wednesday, February, 3, 2010
Los Angeles County trying to save homeless people living in flood-control channels

Los Angeles County trying to save homeless people living in flood-control channels

The County of Los Angeles is mobilizing its departments to rescue homeless people living in the region’s flood-control rivers. With recent rains tormenting Southern California, being homeless in the river and piping systems can be deadly. There are nearly 50,000 people who are homeless in the county, according to a recent homeless count performed by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. Homeless outreach experts, however, don’t have an exact number of people living in the channel system. “It is difficult to physically locate everyone living inside the pipes, along the rivers, under the scaffolding of the bridges, and even in the river,” stated Rudy Salinas, the Outreach Director for People Assisting The Homeless (PATH). “But...

Author LA Homelessness Examiner Tuesday, February, 2, 2010
Is public housing dead?

Is public housing dead?

The images are stark. Concrete block buildings rising up from impoverished urban neighborhoods, sometimes dozens of stories high, filled with people who cannot afford their own apartments. They used to be called, "Projects." Old movies and television shows depict them as drug-dens, places of prostitution, and homes for future gang-bangers. For almost three quarters of a century these public housing projects were the answer to our country's poorest families. Better than the streets, some would say. But today those projects are being demolished all over the country. Cities don't want such blight in their neighborhoods. They would rather decentralize public housing, spread it across the region, than make it so prominent in

Author Joel John Roberts Monday, February, 1, 2010
Los Angeles community leaders ask Mayor Villaraigosa to re-examine Skid Row

Los Angeles community leaders ask Mayor Villaraigosa to re-examine Skid Row

A letter sent to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, signed by 25 executives of nonprofit agencies, law firms, and two mayoral-appointed commissioners of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, asked the mayor to make significant changes to how the city’s law enforcement agency addresses the downtown Skid Row neighborhood. A few years ago, the Los Angeles Police Department, with the blessing of the mayor, added 50 additional police officers to the Central Division beat that includes the 50 square blocks called Skid Row. This area contains more than 5,000 homeless people, and was called “Ground Zero for America’s homelessness” by former President George W. Bush’s homelessness czar, Philip F. Mangano. The LAPD labeled this....

Author LA Homelessness Examiner Monday, February, 1, 2010
Is helping homeless Haitian kids, child-trafficking or a Christian rescue attempt?

Is helping homeless Haitian kids, child-trafficking or a Christian rescue attempt?

Those excruciating television pictures of homeless people walking on the dusty streets of the Haitian capital, as if they were in some sort of daze on a set of a zombie movie, are just hard to take. Then you see the children. Dirty faces, tears streaming down their cheeks. The reporters tell us they are orphans whose parents died in the earthquake. Your heart breaks. You almost want to jump on a plane, pick up these children in your arms, and take them home. Wait. That’s what a group of ten people from a Baptist Church in Idaho recently tried to do. They were in Haiti on a rescue attempt, until they were stopped on the Haiti/Dominican Republic border accused of child-trafficking by Haitian officials. A total of 33 children were being

Author Joel John Roberts Saturday, January, 30, 2010
The biggest fear in suburbia is poverty and homelessness, not crime

The biggest fear in suburbia is poverty and homelessness, not crime

The street is the epitome of America’s perfect suburb. Whether it was the 1950’s Mapleton Drive in the hit TV show Leave It To Beaver, or the same street today called Wisteria Lane in Desperate Housewives. The Universal Studios back lot is a sketch of perfect America, with its manicured lawns, two-story single family residences. The immaculate façade of suburbia. Until you drive behind the plywood elevations at the studio to see propped up scaffolding that only holds false-fronts, not real homes. But still. Most Americans still yearn for that television image of safe and secure suburban living. Even if we know that dream is not real. By the millions, Americans fled cities and purchased post-World War Two stucco boxes in hopes

Author Joel John Roberts
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Alvidrez, Nelson & Watson
On Skid Row, Permanent Housing Works
Alvidrez, Nelson & Watson
As permanent supportive housing providers in Skid Row, we at the Skid Row Housing Trust, SRO Housing Corporation and the Downtown Women’s Center were deeply disheartened by Rev. Andy Bales’ attack on permanent housing linked to support services. When we heard he had concerns, signers of the letter sent to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa called to meet with Rev. Bales but, unfortunately, he has not answered our calls. We still hope we can find common ground. We believe that the best outcome for Skid Row will only occur if we join together in respectful dialogue. That said, we feel we must correct some errors in Rev. Bales post. The claim that “housing groups actually dissuade their employees from reporting the crimes or....
Andrew J. Bales, M.A.T.
Don't Let Skid Row Return to Lawlessness
Andrew J. Bales, M.A.T.
I received the letter sent to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and declined the offer to sign it. I believe it is yet another attempt by some to remove the helpful police presence from Skid Row, which would return this downtown neighborhood to the tragic scenes featured in The Soloist. Statements were made in the letter that stated “crime has been reduced by 33% on Skid Row, therefore it is time to move police away from Skid Row and to more dangerous parts of our city.” The fact is, the police presence is the reason for this crime reduction and an absence of police would be followed by a return to lawlessness. As it is, there is still far too much crime and violence on Skid Row, especially against women. And some of the crime..
Doug Schenkelberg
Housing is a Universal Human Right
Doug Schenkelberg
Just over 60 years ago, a document called the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was born. This declaration says that all people, regardless of where they are born, the color of their skin or their station in life, have the same fundamental rights. We are talking about the right to vote, the right to live a life without torture, the right to live without discrimination, the right to work and the right to take a break, among others. Included in this is the right to housing – the simple belief that no one should have to be homeless. Everyone has the right to a home. The United States helped write this list of universal rights. Eleanor Roosevelt was one of its primary authors. Not only that, but the United States was one of the...
Lawrence Mishel
Homelessness, the Economy and Living Wage
Lawrence Mishel
Homelessness, long viewed as a condition of urban poverty, is now affecting growing numbers of families in not only urban, but suburban and rural America as well. While homelessness has many contributing factors, the primary symptom of individuals and families who lack permanent shelter is the absence of adequate wages. Through last summer, this recession had already seen an explosion in shelter stays by individuals—and in increasing numbers—families—in urban centers like New York City, wealthy suburbs like Montgomery County in Maryland, and rural areas like Shreveport, Louisiana. As the recession deepened and job losses rapidly accelerated from the fourth quarter of 2008 through the first quarter of 2009, there is every expectation...
Nan Roman
The Last Ten Years: Looking Back at Ten Year Plans
Nan Roman
In 2000, the National Alliance to End Homelessness unveiled the aptly titled, “A Plan, Not a Dream: How to End Homelessness in Ten Years.” The “Ten Year Plan,” as it came to be called, presented a fresh, comprehensive, and multi-system approach to ending homelessness. It utilized data, leveraged existing support systems, promoted outreach, and focused on housing. It integrated all we knew about the most promising and proven practices to end homelessness. Now, ten years after the launch, we pause to take stock of our progress. There are now 234 completed plans to end homelessness. Of these, 185 are city or county plans, 25 are state plans, 24 are regional plans. Along the way, we’ve encountered some challenges....
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