A Clean, Well-Lighted Place

Airo Hernandez is sitting in a fourth-floor office of the Denver Central Library, looking for help. His needs extend far beyond leniency for a misplaced book, assistance printing a resumé, or any obscure factoid a librarian could conjure. On this May day, Hernandez is trying to put his life back together, and he believes this place and the woman sitting across from him, Cuica Montoya, might be his best hope.

Hernandez moved to Denver from El Paso, Texas, in 2016, for a carpentry job he promptly lost because he didn’t get along with his boss. The lack of income left him experiencing homelessness, and on the streets, Hernandez, who has paranoid schizophrenia, sank into a life of meth and petty crime. Eventually, he rediscovered Christianity at a Mile High City homeless shelter and got sober. But the 33-year-old has never quite been able to outrun his past. His criminal history, mental illness, and homelessness have all been recurrent hurdles to employment and, therefore, any chance at getting a clean start.

Then, a couple of years ago, Hernandez, a hobbyist graphic artist,