May 25, 2026 · 16 min · 5 segments
In this episode, we hear David's speech from Homeward Alliance's recent annual fundraising event. Through a poignant anecdote, David explains how systemic failures in social systems lead a person into…
Earlier this week, in the middle of a frigid night in Fort Collins, a man experiencing homelessness was released from a local hospital wearing nothing but his hospital gown with no place to go, no plan to get him anywhere.
A good Samaritan saw him, picked him up, kept him warm until the Murphy Center, our local day shelter and resource center, opened in the morning, and the man survived.
But it begs the question: how could something like this happen? When I think about that question, I'm reminded of an email that I got just a few weeks ago from a longtime Homeward Alliance supporter.
If you haven't listened to it, the podcast is From Here to Home, wherever you get your podcasts.
But more specifically, our supporter asked me about one of my common refrains, and if you know me, you've heard me say this a lot.
I'll attribute it to the person who I heard say it first, and that was Philip Mangano, the longtime head of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness.
"The back door of every broken system is the front door of the homeless shelter." In other words, homelessness is not about individual failure.
It is about rigged or failed systems and the inevitability that millions of people will become homeless because of those rigged systems, no matter what they do.
The question from our supporter was, "What does that literally mean? How do broken systems actually lead to someone becoming homeless?" It's a great question, and it relates to the man who showed up at the Murphy Center in his hospital gown because something like that does not happen in a vacuum.
Put yourself in the shoes of a hypothetical person, like the man in the hospital gown, and ask yourself this, and these are hypotheticals.
How is it his fault rather than a system failure that he was born into an impoverished family, an impoverished community? If as a child, his parents had to choose between expenses like groceries and electric bills, and he went to school hungry, unable to focus on his studies.
How is it his fault rather than a system failure that he fell behind academically each summer because he had to work jobs while his peers went to summer camps or received tutoring? Or that his school systems lacked the resources of more affluent schools, resources that could have helped him navigate challenges inside and outside of his school.
How is it his fault that when he was a teenager, his parents finally couldn't keep up, lost their jobs, slipped into homelessness, and began abusing drugs and alcohol, and that as a result, he was placed into a foster care system that provided some stability but failed to provide continued support when he turned eighteen.
eighteen.How then, when he had no home, no education, no job skills to leverage, no connections to his community, could we judge him for turning to drugs and alcohol and ending up in jail himself? And how could we judge him when he still feels lost upon his exit from jail, having failed to receive assistance in preparation for his release from a criminal justice system that prioritizes punishment over rehabilitation? Can we really expect, in that context, that he has had regular access to a primary care physician or a therapist? Should we be surprised then when he shows up at the hospital in the throes of a psychotic break after decades of unaddressed trauma, untreated mental health and substance use issues? And should we be surprised that the emergency room, which has a specific and important function, is not equipped to respond to every one of those issues? The point is this.
This is not to say that everyone who experiences trauma during childhood will become homeless, or that anyone whose parents utilize substances will also struggle with substances.
People overcome unthinkable challenges to achieve unimaginable things, and we see it every day.
It makes us think that this world is a meritocracy, that the people who work the hardest will ultimately be the most successful.
Earlier this week, in the middle of a frigid night in Fort Collins, a man experiencing homelessness was released from a local hospital wearing nothing but his hospital gown with no place to go, no plan to get him anywhere.
A good Samaritan saw him, picked him up, kept him warm until the Murphy Center, our local day shelter and resource center, opened in the morning, and the man survived.
But it begs the question: how could something like this happen? When I think about that question, I'm reminded of an email that I got just a few weeks ago from a longtime Homeward Alliance supporter.
If you haven't listened to it, the podcast is From Here to Home, wherever you get your podcasts.
But more specifically, our supporter asked me about one of my common refrains, and if you know me, you've heard me say this a lot.
I'll attribute it to the person who I heard say it first, and that was Philip Mangano, the longtime head of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness.
"The back door of every broken system is the front door of the homeless shelter." In other words, homelessness is not about individual failure.
It is about rigged or failed systems and the inevitability that millions of people will become homeless because of those rigged systems, no matter what they do.
The question from our supporter was, "What does that literally mean? How do broken systems actually lead to someone becoming homeless?" It's a great question, and it relates to the man who showed up at the Murphy Center in his hospital gown because something like that does not happen in a vacuum.
Put yourself in the shoes of a hypothetical person, like the man in the hospital gown, and ask yourself this, and these are hypotheticals.
How is it his fault rather than a system failure that he was born into an impoverished family, an impoverished community? If as a child, his parents had to choose between expenses like groceries and electric bills, and he went to school hungry, unable to focus on his studies.
How is it his fault rather than a system failure that he fell behind academically each summer because he had to work jobs while his peers went to summer camps or received tutoring? Or that his school systems lacked the resources of more affluent schools, resources that could have helped him navigate challenges inside and outside of his school.
How is it his fault that when he was a teenager, his parents finally couldn't keep up, lost their jobs, slipped into homelessness, and began abusing drugs and alcohol, and that as a result, he was placed into a foster care system that provided some stability but failed to provide continued support when he turned eighteen.
eighteen.How then, when he had no home, no education, no job skills to leverage, no connections to his community, could we judge him for turning to drugs and alcohol and ending up in jail himself? And how could we judge him when he still feels lost upon his exit from jail, having failed to receive assistance in preparation for his release from a criminal justice system that prioritizes punishment over rehabilitation? Can we really expect, in that context, that he has had regular access to a primary care physician or a therapist? Should we be surprised then when he shows up at the hospital in the throes of a psychotic break after decades of unaddressed trauma, untreated mental health and substance use issues? And should we be surprised that the emergency room, which has a specific and important function, is not equipped to respond to every one of those issues? The point is this.
This is not to say that everyone who experiences trauma during childhood will become homeless, or that anyone whose parents utilize substances will also struggle with substances.
People overcome unthinkable challenges to achieve unimaginable things, and we see it every day.
It makes us think that this world is a meritocracy, that the people who work the hardest will ultimately be the most successful.
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