As the US homeless population grows older and sicker, new programsin Denver, Colorado, and elsewhere link care, services, and housing.
Rashid Sayles, 53, unfurled his legs in the DenverHealth hospital bed and stretched them—left and right, left and right. Being able to move like this was both a small triumph and an act of hope. Sayles has been disabled since 2021, when in a rash and senseless act, his friend’s ex-boyfriend shot him in the back. The bullet fractured his L1 vertebra, ripped through a lung, and damaged his liver, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. He’s been trying to regain mobility and put his life back together ever since.
Denver Health, a downtown Denver, Colorado, anchor for people in need since its founding in 1860, became Sayles’s safety net. In the aftermath of the shooting, he’s made multiple trips back to the hospital. It was his third visit that turned into a lengthy stay. Admitted for more than three months, Sayles found himself battling sepsis from a serious wound infection. By the time he was discharged, he learned that his roommates had been evicted from their apartment—which meant that he was homeless.