Homeless Unfiltered from Invisible People

Invisible People
  • 4.8 (18)
  • Documentary
  • Updated Weekly

Welcome to the Homeless Unfiltered Podcast, hosted by Mark Horvath—the most raw, unfiltered podcast on homelessness you'll find. Get ready for real stories from people with lived and living experiences of homelessness, along with eye-opening insights from service providers, policymakers, and advocates. We dive deep into the hard truths, exposing both wins and failures in the fight against homelessness. This podcast will challenge you, inspire action, and spark change. Tune in and learn how to be part of the solution for positive change!

  1. 8h ago

    She Led U.S. Homelessness Policy. Why Is the Crisis Getting Worse?

    Barbara Poppe has spent more than 40 years fighting homelessness, helped lead the Obama administration’s historic effort to end it, and today she has something most people in public service rarely have: the freedom to tell the truth. Barb is one of the smartest people I know on homelessness and someone I’m honored to call a friend. In this deeply personal conversation, we talk about how America once moved toward ending homelessness, why we’re now going backwards, and the painful reality that the solutions we knew 40 years ago are largely the same solutions we know today. Barb takes on criminalization, misinformation, lived experience, affordable housing, and the policy choices that keep people homeless. Her message is both devastating and hopeful: We know how to house every single person. We could do it. We’re choosing not to. Effective Homelessness Advocacy Messaging Toolkit https://invisiblepeople.tv/toolkit

    She Led U.S. Homelessness Policy. Why Is the Crisis Getting Worse?

  2. Sep 22

    What If We Treated Homelessness Like a Business Problem?

    A for-profit company working to end homelessness sounds like a contradiction. For Mike Shore, it’s been his family’s work for more than 30 years. Mike runs HOM Inc., a mission-driven for-profit company helping communities manage the complicated work of getting homeless people into housing. We talk about whether profit can actually be a force for good, why homeless services have become so complicated, and whether business, technology, and a different way of organizing the work could help us do better. Mike and I go way back, all the way to the early days of Twitter, when social media was actually fun. We were experimenting with a new way to talk about homelessness, building unlikely communities online, breaking some rules, and occasionally getting ourselves into trouble. We talk about whether profit can actually be a force for good, why homeless services can be so frustratingly complicated, what business and technology can bring to the fight against homelessness, and what we lost when social media stopped feeling social. Today’s Homeless Unfiltered podcast is sponsored by Padmission Journey: https://padmission.com/invisiblepeople Padmission Journey is an end-to-end housing program management platform built specifically for homeless housing programs. It helps organizations manage rental assistance, rent calculations, inspections, payments, and other complex housing processes in one place, replacing spreadsheets and disconnected systems with modern tools that make the work easier.

    What If We Treated Homelessness Like a Business Problem?

  3. Sep 8

    The Fight to Stop Trump’s Homelessness Policy From Hurting People

    What happens when the systems meant to prevent homelessness start failing the very people they were built to help? Mary Francis Kenyon, Chief Equity Officer at the National Alliance to End Homelessness, joins me for a deeply personal conversation that starts with her own journey through addiction and recovery and expands into a much bigger story about homelessness in America. We talk about the safety net that helped Mary Francis recover, why rural homelessness is so often invisible, the growing crisis facing older adults and people with disabilities, and why housing, treatment, harm reduction, recovery housing, and other solutions shouldn’t be pitted against each other. Then we get into the political and legal fight over the Trump administration’s homelessness policies and what could happen to people who have already fought their way out of homelessness. At the heart of our conversation is a simple idea: leave no one behind. UPDATE: Since this conversation was recorded, a federal judge vacated HUD’s 2026 Continuum of Care funding notice. The Trump administration and HUD have appealed that ruling, so the legal fight continues.

    The Fight to Stop Trump’s Homelessness Policy From Hurting People

  4. Aug 8

    Art From Surviving Homelessness

    Justin and Denise both turned their pain into art, and their art into a way to help others. Justin, who performs as Surfing Sofas, spent over a decade bouncing between friends' couches, night shelters, and temporary housing before moving into his first flat just weeks ago. Denise built a career as a writer and filmmaker after years battling addiction and homelessness of her own, work that eventually became the award-winning short film This Is Depression. They talk about what actually happens after the emergency ends, or in Justin's case, what it feels like when it's only just starting to. Denise is years out from her own homelessness and still carries it with her. Justin is brand new to having his own front door and still isn't sure he believes it's real. Justin recites two original poems, including one written from inside a night shelter. Denise opens up about the PTSD that still catches her off guard, and the recovery handbook she wrote for people going through what she went through, which later led her into prison workshops writing a book with incarcerated men that's now shortlisted for two national crime writing awards. This episode is about the realities of homelessness, why listening to people with lived experience matters, and how art can turn the dark into hope. Watch Denise's film This Is Depression here: https://youtu.be/loHMurD0jGU?si=kTtI8OOiNZZYCkbt Order Denise's book Sparks in the Dark here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sparks-Dark-Prison-Project-1/dp/1917061730 The Good Work – a poem by Surfing Sofas: https://homewards.org.uk/the-good-work-by-surfing-sofas Listen to Surfing Sofas' poem "Till the Day We Meet Again" on the Museum of Homelessness website: https://museumofhomelessness.org/news/poet-in-residence

    Art From Surviving Homelessness

  5. Jul 28

    We're Reversing Homelessness Progress and Nobody's Talking About It

    What does it actually take to end homelessness in America? And why is that progress getting erased right now? Julián Castro has been in this fight at the local and federal level: as Mayor of San Antonio, and as HUD Secretary under President Obama, where he helped cut veteran homelessness by 47 percent. Today he leads the Latino Community Foundation, focused on civic engagement and economic opportunity in Latino communities. Today on Homeless Unfiltered, Castro talks Housing First versus criminalization, why the federal government's role is absolutely critical, and how policy driven by ideology instead of evidence is putting already-housed people back on the street, while gutting the programs proven to actually work. He also gets real about what advocacy looks like and where he still finds hope. Thanks to Ann Oliva and the National Alliance to End Homelessness for helping make this conversation happen.

    We're Reversing Homelessness Progress and Nobody's Talking About It

  6. Jul 4

    What a Psychiatric Ward Taught Vijay Gupta About Music

    Vijay Gupta was 19 years old when he became the youngest violinist ever to join the LA Philharmonic. On the night he turned 20, he was playing the Hollywood Bowl with John Williams in front of 18,000 people waving lightsabers. By every measure, he had made it. Then he took a wrong turn while learning to drive and ended up on Skid Row. His father was in the passenger seat, screaming at him to get out of there. Less than a mile from Disney Hall. He couldn't stop thinking about it. What followed was 18 years of showing up at Skid Row shelters, county jails, state hospitals, and VA clinics, convinced he was there to heal people through music. It took a long time before he understood that the people he came to help were the ones healing him. Vijay Gupta is the founder of Street Symphony, a 2018 MacArthur Genius Grant recipient, and the author of the new memoir Restrung. In this conversation, he and Mark talk about what it really costs to see people who have been made invisible, why homelessness is an epidemic of spiritual alienation, and what a man in a psychiatric ward taught a Juilliard-trained violinist about music when nobody applauded. Some conversations deserve more than a listen. They deserve to be passed on. Share this episode with someone you care about, and if you want to go deeper into Vijay's remarkable journey, pick up a copy of Restrung https://www.vijaygupta.com/book.

    What a Psychiatric Ward Taught Vijay Gupta About Music

  7. Jun 26

    The UK Once Housed 39,000 in Days. Now Rough Sleeping Hits Record Highs.

    Rough sleeping in London and across the UK just hit a record high. Every measure of homelessness is at its worst level ever recorded. And yet during the COVID pandemic, the UK government got roughly 39,000 homeless people off the streets in a matter of days. The political will existed. The problem got solved. Then it stopped. Matt Downie is the Chief Executive of Crisis, the UK's national charity for people experiencing homelessness. He's been inside this fight for over a decade, watching rough sleeping numbers climb while proven solutions go ignored. In this conversation we get into why the homelessness sector's own fundraising messaging helped build the very stereotypes that make the public look away, what Finland and Japan did to dramatically reduce homelessness and why those lessons aren't being applied, how the UK just abolished a law criminalizing rough sleeping while the US moves in the opposite direction, and what it's actually going to take to change the narrative around homelessness for good. Whether you're in London, across the UK, in Canada, or anywhere in the United States, homelessness is growing. And the solutions already exist. Share this podcast with everyone you know. Talk about it in your community. Because the only thing missing is the will to act.

    The UK Once Housed 39,000 in Days. Now Rough Sleeping Hits Record Highs.

  8. Jun 17

    He Went From Skid Row Homeless to CEO. Here's How.

    Thirty years ago, Troy Vaughn was homeless, struggling with addiction, and trying to survive on Skid Row in Los Angeles. Today, he's a CEO, author, pastor, and nationally recognized leader helping others rebuild their lives. In this powerful conversation, Troy and Mark Horvath reconnect for the first time in years and reflect on their shared experience at the Hollywood Vine Recovery Center. Troy shares how homelessness, recovery, faith, education, and community transformed his life, leading him from Skid Row to leadership roles that are changing how homelessness is addressed across Los Angeles and beyond. They also discuss the importance of lived experience, leadership, housing, recovery, and why people who have experienced homelessness should have a greater voice in shaping solutions. Troy's story is a powerful reminder that transformation is possible and that people experiencing homelessness are capable of far more than society often imagines.

    He Went From Skid Row Homeless to CEO. Here's How.
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Ratings & Reviews

4.8
out of 5
18 Ratings

About

Welcome to the Homeless Unfiltered Podcast, hosted by Mark Horvath—the most raw, unfiltered podcast on homelessness you'll find. Get ready for real stories from people with lived and living experiences of homelessness, along with eye-opening insights from service providers, policymakers, and advocates. We dive deep into the hard truths, exposing both wins and failures in the fight against homelessness. This podcast will challenge you, inspire action, and spark change. Tune in and learn how to be part of the solution for positive change!

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