From Homeless to Unstoppable – MSU Denver RED

This story appears in the Fall 2024 issue of RED Magazine.

As a child, Hamilton Nikoloff asked his grandmother why homeless people didn’t have homes. Even then he was not satisfied with the answers. He had no way of knowing that one day homelessness would become part of his own life experience or that a degree from the University of Denver would help him help others experiencing homelessness.

Nikoloff knows what it’s like to struggle, citing his history of substance abuse, mental health issues and homelessness. He wanted to help people in similar circumstances. He just wasn’t sure if he could earn a degree, given his “long and difficult educational history.” He applied to MSU Denver and was surprised by what he found.

“I was excited to learn that I could take all of my many studies and combine them into a single degree plan,” Nikoloff said. “It was great for someone like me.”

He used his experience as a starting point to pursue an independent degree in social policy and human welfare through MSU Denver’s customized degree program, which allows students to tailor the degree through interdisciplinary study. He soon became immersed in subjects such as sociology and ethics, turning his personal history into what he calls “a complete picture of what it means to be human.”

After graduating from university, Nikoloff went to work helping the homeless in Colorado. He did this during unprecedented times. Fueled by the ongoing housing crisis and exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, homelessness is on the rise in Denver and beyond, challenging advocates and straining social services to the limit. The Colorado Homeless Coalition reported that the state’s homeless population increased 39% in 2023, with 14,439 people experiencing homelessness, according to its annual survey.

After completing his degree from the University of Denver, Nikoloff landed a job with the coalition, a nonprofit that provides housing and health care to thousands of Denver residents each year. He works in a large team and with a constantly changing group of clients. “We are dealing with human services, which deals with the complexity of people,” he said.

RELATED: He was homeless. He now receives MSU Denver’s highest collegiate honor.

For Nikoloff, diving headfirst into these complexities also means recognizing critical gaps and barriers to access, ideas that led him to co-found a nonprofit that helps clients access services once they’re in housing.

“We’re not here to tell customers what to do,” he said. “We are here to demonstrate what is available and what the transition from one stage of life to the next can look like.”

Nikoloff credits his time at MSU Denver and the mentorship of faculty members like Sheila Rookie, Ph.D., professor of political science, for shaping his future. He said Ruki helped him see the big picture of how we managed each other and what patterns worked and what didn’t.

Over the next decade, Nikoloff hopes to turn his hands-on experience serving the region’s homeless into a career representing them on the Denver City Council and beyond.

“If we want people to recover from these experiences, we have to package them, show them that they are worth it,” he said. “The solutions are right in front of us.”