He's 24, and already a rest home veteran. He entered his first rest home three days after he turned 18. It was better than a locked-down psychiatric hospital, and better than home, where he says his days were turbulent. He has lived at Yelton's Health Care in rural Cleveland County for three years now, among some 75 people with mental disabilities. Here, in a rundown elementary school the county abandoned years ago, days drag in dreary routine.
People pace up and down the concrete block halls, in and out the concrete block rooms.
Resident Roosevelt O'Leary mops the halls all day long, but he doesn't get them clean. The building is too old. He cleans because it's something to do, a simple, singular purpose in a place that county officials say has been overwhelmed by disorder. Young tries to stay out of trouble. I intend to.