Housing for NYC’s Most Vulnerable Under Scrutiny for ‘Screening’

One fell asleep several times during the interview. Another reported daily hallucinations involving his deceased father’s voice. One was “extremely confrontational,” while another was just “very guarded.” The applicant with a history of “noncompliance” denied having a mental illness or substance-abuse problem and one of his fellow applicants spoke “of an electric machine that is trying to harm him.”

“Client blames people and the environment for his anger management issues,” wrote one interviewer. Another client, “describes her mental illness as a ‘pain in her mind’ and states that when she gets upset the muscles in her head sweat and swell.”