When they do, it is often the result of a particularly vivid news report. One such story drew attention at the time that I first visited the Martinique. Although the mother was no longer living in the building, her story was known to several residents because she had been living here when she was pregnant and she had gone into labor here. Her child’s weight at birth was dangerously low and, because he had grown very ill soon after birth, he had been kept in the hospital for several months. He had been discharged on Christmas Eve of 1984. Subsequent events within his life led to a threat of legal action. With the help of members of the Coalition for the Homeless who had come to know the child and his mother, I was able to meet her and to learn firsthand what she had undergone. Finding her was, in itself, a challenge. It required many phone calls and a long and complicated search that does not call for recapitulation here. It is enough to say that, when we finally spoke, she wanted very much to meet and talk.
