After her release from a mental hospital in January, Joyce Brown seemed to have a new start in life. As one of the first homeless people picked up in Mayor Ed Koch's program to take people suspected of being mentally ill off the street, Brown won a controversial test case when a judge ruled that she could not be forced to submit to treatment. The former "Billie Boggs," as she called herself, appeared on Donahue and lectured to Harvard Law School students on the plight of the homeless. She found housing in a somewhat seedy hotel in Times Square.
Last week,...
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