Cash Smith was thin on prospects and stranded inside the Astrodome when a voice wafted over the PA system, about an offer: Free seats on a flight to Denver, a place to live when you get there, help landing a job.

“You’re young, you can start over, you’ll be strong,” his grandmother prodded. Smith, then 24, boarded a plane with his two kids and other Hurricane Katrina evacuees, bound for the Rockies on a promise.

The support was real. His pregnant wife, diverted by bus to Dallas, would soon join them. A self-described "menace to society" back in New Orleans, Smith got a job at Colorado University and earned his GED. Family came, moving onto the same Denver street.

But the marriage soon frayed, he said. Relatives decamped for Texas, including his wife and kids. In Colorado, something was

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