Author Joel John Roberts’ new book is 160 pages of common sense that ought to be required reading for every American. The title is tongue in cheek but proves to be a worthwhile theme throughout the book; in a country with our wealth is it simply absurd that homelessness flourishes – or is there a conscious effort by some members of our society to increase homelessness?
As Roberts states, “surely, with the billions and billions of dollars spent every year, we could figure out a way to lift six million people out of poverty.” Surely. But then why haven’t we?
“Consider this book as an absurd handbook to the homeless situation in our country,” Roberts explains. The picture is absurd. The reality is absurd. And these points absurdities come as the solutions lie right in front of us.
This book points out that although our federal government provides a few billion dollars each year for homeless services, it pales in comparison to what is spent each year to support new weapons, businesses, foreign countries and pork barrel projects. This book is powerful in its brevity and simplicity, offering practical solutions to the underlying problems.
Roberts is the chief executive officer and executive director of PATH Partners in Los Angeles, which has developed a national model of integrated services for the homeless. Roberts recognizes the lunacy and inefficiency that our homeless are subjected to by having homeless services dispersed throughout our communities.
In D.C., it is very easy to see the inefficiency in having homeless services dispersed throughout the community; all too often, a homeless person may have to wake up and take a bus or walk from Southeast where they slept to have a breakfast at a church in Northeast, finish eating in time to take the metro to Northwest for their intake meeting, etc. This is costly in terms of time, money and effort and it is incredibly inefficient for the providers.
In Los Angeles, Roberts has helped pioneer the idea of “one-stop” centers that house nearly two dozen public and private social services agencies meeting homeless people’s needs. Centers such as these help to make services more readily available to the homeless and increase efficiency and flexibility for the providers.
Roberts’ book offers 17 short chapters that show the absurd structure society has built both in government and in our own minds and hearts that guarantee the perpetuation of homelessness. The chapters include: Build Our House on Sand, Keep Minimum Wage to a Minimum, No Free Lunch-Bed, The Homeless Outlaw, Don’t Ask, Don’t Plan, Eliminate Welfare, Free Will for the Mentally Ill. Once readers finish these chapters, Roberts hopes that they will wonder, ‘What are we thinking?’
The book opens as I would like to close: “When you think about it, this reality is simply ridiculous. We are the richest, most powerful country in the world, perhaps in history. And yet we allow thousands and thousands of our own people to languish on the streets as if our cities strive to become Calcutta.”
