Surviving Homelessness—A Veteran’s Redemption Tale

The Advisor with Stacey Chillemi · Jul 15, 2025 · 52m

Michael A. Smith was living on the streets. A veteran who had served his country and found himself in the gutter — addiction, mental illness, and a life that by every external measure had reached the end of the road. He did not stay there. What brought him back was not a program or a policy but a spiritual awakening and the discovery that writing — putting the unfiltered truth of his experience onto the page — could save a life. His memoir The Gutter Gospel is exactly what the title promises — raw, honest, and completely without the softening that most redemption stories apply to their…