The buildings were dilapidated. The living conditions were wretched. Drugs were so rampant that the toilet stalls had no doors.
During one of my many visits to a psychiatric crisis unit while I was homeless, a female patient told me that she'd been gang raped by staff at the Long Island Shelter. Do you not believe her? Of course you don't. Nobody believes homeless people.
There were probably a lot of people who thought about raping me when I was homeless, and who didn't because they didn't think that they would get away with it. She was a big, fat, black girl; they knew they could. She said that they high-fived each other afterwards.
There's nowhere to go on an island. Once you're there, you're there until they let you leave.
