Kevin Roberts went from out-of-work sports columnist to giving city’s homeless a voice with a newspaper of their own | Bob Brookover

The first impression was always the same for anyone who met Kevin Roberts: Boy, is that guy happy.

“If I ever saw Kevin not smiling, I can’t remember,” former Daily News baseball writer Paul Hagen said Friday shortly after learning the horrific news that Roberts, with his wife, Kim; father, Art; and brother Jon by his side in North Carolina, had lost his battle with bladder cancer at the age of 53. “He was one of the most upbeat and optimistic people I’ve ever met.”

Roberts, a Michigan native, became a baseball writer shortly after graduating from Michigan State in 1990. His first assignment was covering the Pirates for the Tribune Review in suburban Pittsburgh. He became a Philadelphia resident in 1997 after being hired to cover the Phillies for the Courier-Post. I am somewhat responsible because Roberts replaced me after I left to cover the Phillies for the Delaware County Daily Times.

You could say my departure was one of the best things to ever happen for Philadelphia because Roberts, just by being himself, made this city a better place.

Roberts’ life after sports journalism -- a career he absolutely loved -- was as the point man for One Step Away, the monthly Philadelphia newspaper distributed by the homeless and designed to help the homeless get back on track. Philadelphia native Emily Taylor has been the director at One Step Away for a decade and she knows all about Roberts’ impact.

“He’s a true hero, angel and champion,” Taylor said. “Kevin was the first editor and really the driving force of One Step Away.”

Roberts was hired as the communications manager at Resources for Human Development in 2009 shortly after being laid off by the Courier-Post.

Taylor said Bob Fishman, the founder and former CEO of Resources for Human Development, a non-profit organization that serves people in need of homes, shelters, mental health counseling and addiction recovery, made a trip to Washington D.C. in October 2009 and saw a newspaper operation helping the homeless in the nation’s capital.

In a meeting at the Ridge Center, which was the largest men’s homeless shelter in the city at the time, content issues, circulation initiatives and names for the newspaper were discussed. Taylor said they settled upon One Step Away because “everyone is one step away from being homeless and one step away from recovering from being homeless.”

“His mom was kind of a saint,” Kim Roberts said. “She worked in a drug rehab facility and Kevin just always wanted to make a difference. Through his contacts, he was able to help so many people. He was still working up until about two weeks ago and even then he had brought his computer to the hospital.”

Roberts got the late legendary Philadelphia boxer Matthew Saad Muhammad to tell his homeless story and he recruited the late Darren Daulton to help the organization. Taylor said Roberts was a master at communicating with the homeless vendors who used One Step Away as an avenue to improve their lives.

“Kevin meant the world to me,” Taylor said. "I was 23 when they asked me to be the director of One Step Away. Most people were saying I was too young and too sweet to be in this role, but Kevin was like, ‘No, she can do it.’ That was the best thing about Kevin as a boss and supervisor. He would always tell you that you could do it and let you know that he was there if you needed his help.

“When you speak to the homeless, you’re often dealing with a population that is not used to people listening to them, but Kevin always made sure they understood that he believed in them. He wanted them to be visible and he wanted to give a voice to the voiceless. You could tell he was sincere about it.”