people with pull - The Spectrum Magazine - Redwood City's Monthly ...

Trading One Passion for Another
By Nicole Minieri
Within the City of Redwood City, a vital gem of a
department is responsible for administering state
and federal funds for community development
programs and habitation for families from
different walks of life who are in dire need
of a home. This precious stone is the city’s
Housing Department, and although their staff
consists of only three, their accomplishments are
considerable. Leading the Housing Department
for the last 31 years is Housing Coordinator Debbi
Jones-Thomas, who happens to be making way
for something equally important: her retirement.
“When I came to Redwood City, I was only
looking for a five-year job on my resume, and
what I found was my ministry,” said Jones-Thomas.
“I have always been very passionate about my job
in the Housing Department, but now I am getting
ready to leave this position after all of this time
to fulfill my other interests. I’ve made a living
and now I want to make a life for myself. I want
to work on my bucket list because there are some
things that I’ve never had the chance to do before
and the possibilities are endless. I really have a
passion for writing and hope to publish at least
one book in the next couple of years, if not sooner.
I want to travel, and I definitely want to continue
on in public service, so everyone will still get to
see me in the community amongst the nonprofits.”
That community service is on Jones-Thomas’
“live life to the fullest” bucket list should come
as no surprise, since changing people’s lives for
the better has resided at the top of her daily “to
do” list during her lengthy tenure at the Housing
Department, whose main aim is to assist with
housing program objectives that benefit our
neighborhood for the long term.
“We provide affordable housing for people
with low income and for people who have special
housing needs because of developmental and mental
disabilities,” said Jones-Thomas. “Our programs
are continually helping homeless shelters too. We
fund emergency shelters and transitional housing,
help with shared housing and we even intervene
with racial discrimination when people try to
get housing and are treated differently. And the
programs which I have been involved with have
been comprehensive and are based on what is
needed. Most people who need housing really
need it because they lack job skills or have other
types of issues that need to be addressed, so our
full range of services have been very important to
these people. I have also been fortunate to work
with a number of nonprofits that help our services
and who have been so awesome in their ability to
serve the residents of Redwood City.”
As housing coordinator, Jones-Thomas has
excelled at aiding less fortunate families by
providing rental assistance and ownership
housing projects. “I was very instrumental
in starting projects as soon as I first came to
work for the Housing Department,” said Jones-
Thomas. “Actually, my first project was Heron
Court in Redwood Shores. I also partnered with
the nonprofit housing organization Habitat for
Humanity, where we worked on four Redwood
City projects together: a single-family home on
Madrone Street, six units on Hope Street, 36
units on Rollison Avenue and eight units for a
townhome on Lincoln Avenue.”
But that was only the beginning for Jones-
Thomas, as the list of affordable housing projects
she’s worked on has grown since then. To date, Jones-
Thomas has also worked on the development
of the multiconglomerate Kainos residential
housing ventures that are located throughout
Redwood City, plus City Center Plaza, Hilton
House, Berkshire Avenue Home, Oxford Street
Apartments, Casa de Redwood, Pine Shared Home,
Redwood City Commons, Cassia St. Group Home
and Redwood City Commons. Jones-Thomas also
works in conjunction with local nonprofit homeless
shelters, such as the Redwood Family Home, Maple
Street Shelter, Spring Street Shelter and Daybreak
Youth Shelter, to meet the temporary housing
needs of the homeless.
Besides cooperating with approximately 40 local
nonprofit organizations to provide affordable
housing options for qualifying families, Jones-Thomas
is also accountable for other important tasks
on a daily basis. “In addition to administering
contracts for a number of nonprofits, I also work
on purchased units or I work with clients on
negotiating the sale to make it affordable housing
for them. And I’ll work with a new nonprofit to
help them identify a project that we can fund,”
explained Jones-Thomas. “It is a lot of work, but I
absolutely love it. It’s kind of interesting because
my father used to say, if you have a roof over your
head and God in your heart, you can get through
everything else! It’s kind of phenomenal that I
ended up in this particular industry. I love what
I do because it directly changes people’s lives. I’ve
always had a passion for public service and believe
that how you get up in the morning determines
how successful you are going to be that day and
in the days to follow. Basically, at the end of the
day, everybody wants the same thing out of life,
and if you don’t believe that affordable housing
is an important service, then you’ve never been
homeless in life.”
(continues on next page)
Jones-Thomas with Redwood City Police Officer Dan Smith, Fire
Capt. Bruce Meisenbach and Sgt. James Stoney.
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