On a Warm Wednesday afternoon, I walked the streets of downtown Fort Collins. Whilst searching for inspiration and studying the many random faces that walked past me, I stumbled upon a man sitting on a bench. He went by the name, “Mike”. I immediately noticed the sign Mike held. “SPARE ANYTHING”. He didn’t strike me as anything but humble. I continued to walk past him and after about 100 feet, I stopped and realized that these are the people that we don’t hear about. Sure, we hear the success stories of trust fund CEO’s and their “survival through covid” or the occasional “rags to riches” story about lower-middle class raised celebrities. But when do we hear about Mike’s story? Or people similar to Mike’s story? I knew I would be doing a disservice to not only the writing community, but to my community and Mike’s community by not asking this guy if he had a second to talk about himself. I turned around, went into the nearest restaurant and bought him a little bit of food and some water. I walked up to him, handed him his food and asked him if I could possibly interview him and learn more about his perspective. He instantly lit up, smiling ear to ear. He told me yes. I sat next to him and started asking him some questions.

Myles: Where are you from?

Mike: Tennessee

Describe your life in Tennessee growing up.

Rough. Rough Childhood. I was abused. My parents were drug addicts and alcoholics, so I come from a traumatic childhood.

How old were you when you left Tennessee?

I was fourteen.

Would you say you almost immediately became homeless at that time?

Yep. Been homeless ever since. I’m 28 now.

What’s your living situation like? Do you move around a lot?

Yup. But I wanna settle down… Hopefully. Just waiting on my social security and all the government assistance… Just things like that. It takes time, it’s not gonna happen overnight.

Describe your overall experience in Fort Collins.

Honestly, I’ve been in Fort Collins for about three days and it’s been pretty decent.

Would you consider it a better place to be without a home than other places you’ve been?

About the same. Yeah. I couldn’t say it’s better or worse.

What about the people of Fort Collins?

They’re very nice. Very nice. Kinda reminds me of back home, some of the people.

I’ve never been to Tennessee, but I have been to Georgia and the southern hospitality was incredible. Does Tennessee have that aspect as well?

Not at all. Two different sides of a coin. It’s shitty where I’m from.

In your own words, what do you think the United States Government should do to that would truly help out the homeless population?

How about give everybody a free home. Because there’s no sense in thousands of homeless people per city. I saw an ad on social media promoting shelter/assistance for the homeless in Fort Collins. Where is it then? I’m not trying to be disrespectful, but…

Despite Mike’s rough upbringing, or all the hardships he’s been through, he provided no shortage of hope, nor smiles. Mike and people like Mike are human beings. They hold brilliant amounts of wisdom, hard work, emotion and helpfulness to society, the same as you do, or I do. The only difference just happens to be where we live. I could turn this into an insanely long rant as to how the U.S government is colossally fucking up by allowing the homeless population to be run over and forgotten by mega corporations, but I won’t. I’d rather this be a piece focused on the humbleness and kindness, that is Mike. I’d rather showcase a perspective you don’t always get to see. Maybe the world could learn something from Mike.

Saintly Coverage

9/13/23

Special thanks to Alexander Cain