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. 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

  2. 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

  3. 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

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. Jun 10

    Warehousing People Is Not a Housing Policy

    Warehousing people in shelters is not a housing policy. But that's exactly what decades of misplaced investment have created. In this episode of Homeless Unfiltered, we sit down with Gary P. Jenkins, CEO of Urban Pathways, and Pascale Leone, Executive Director of the Supportive Housing Network of New York. Gary has lived experience with homelessness and worked his way up through New York City's Department of Social Services to become its Commissioner. Pascale leads statewide advocacy efforts that this past year included seven rallies, fights to protect HUD funding, and a meeting between domestic violence survivors and state legislators that resulted in an $18 million increase for supportive housing. We talk about why shelter maintains homelessness instead of ending it, why investments keep going to the wrong places, and what it actually takes to change policy when the system feels impossible to move.

    Warehousing People Is Not a Housing Policy

  7. Jun 2

    More Than a Museum: How Love, Art, and Community Is Transforming Homelessnes

    Jessica Turtle was born into a community of homeless people in Cardiff, Wales, set up by her own parents. Her father had spent years sleeping rough on the streets of London. That's where this story begins. But this isn't a story about poverty or pity. It's about love, art, and a community that refuses to be invisible. The Museum of Homelessness in London isn't just a museum. It's a shelter in winter, a gallery, a campaign headquarters, and a home for people society has tried to forget. Jess and her co-founder Matt built something the world told them it didn't want. They were offered a morgue. A closed women's prison. They almost gave up. Then they found a park keeper's lodge in North London and a community that made it their own. In this conversation, we talk about what it really takes to change how the world sees homelessness, why babies are still freezing to death in one of the world's richest cities, and why love, not policy, not charity, might be the most powerful strategy of all. For more information and to support the Museum of Homelessness, visit https://museumofhomelessness.org Their current exhibition, Criminal: An Untold History of Homelessness, Resistance and Survival, is open now. Check the website for dates, hours, and how to visit.

    More Than a Museum: How Love, Art, and Community Is Transforming Homelessnes

  8. May 23

    Those Most Affected by Homelessness Should Be in Power

    Youth homelessness is growing. And most people have no idea how bad it really is. Right now, young people are aging out of foster care with nowhere to go. They are couch surfing, sleeping in cars, and falling through cracks in a system that was supposed to protect them. And the data we have does not even capture the full picture. Marcella Middleton knows this firsthand. She aged out of foster care at 21, went through 16 placements, and experienced homelessness in college. Today she is the CEO of Away Home America, leading a national movement to end youth homelessness. Marcella believes that those closest to the pain should lead the solution. That the people most affected by homelessness should be the ones in power. And she is living proof that it works. She breaks down why youth homelessness keeps growing despite years of effort, why lived experience belongs in the boardroom not just the committee room, and what it really takes to change a system that was never built for you. If you work in social services, policy, advocacy, or you just care about young people, this one is for you. To learn more about Marcella and Away Home America, visit https://awayhomeamerica.org

    Those Most Affected by Homelessness Should Be in Power
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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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