If they are poor, they probably will end up spending some time at a rooming house in the inner city. Many of the area's mentally ill people pass through East Samaria or its nearby counterpart, West Samaria, at some point in their odysseys through the health care system. Together, they constitute an Ellis Island of sorts for the mentally ill of Milwaukee as they leave institutions and re-enter the community. Each of the four people profiled for this series has lived there at one time or another.
Some rooms are perfectly fine.
Others are in deplorable condition, infested with flies and roaches, littered with trash. In some rooms, the pipes are broken so that the toilets, stained and cracked, run constantly. Sister Ann Margaret, who works in the front office at West Samaria, warns that you have to watch the front door or the drug dealers who lurk outside will get in and wreak havoc on the place. Bill Weissert, who managed the buildings for Tri-Corp until last month, when he took a job with an accounting firm, made no apologies. It's our job to keep the common areas clean.