>> narrator: tonight-- it was landmark ruling, thousands of new yorkers with severe mental illness had a right to live onheir own. >> there was a huge question about whether people that had been institionalized can live successfully in the community. >> narrator: and a right to fail. >> they just brought me there and said, "ta daaa!" this is your apartment. >> narrator: "frontline" and propublica examine the challenges and the risks. >> my brother was found totally ked. was he taking his medication? s he not taking his medication? >> i mean these are not 24 hourd supervettings nor were they intended to be. >> narrator: tonight on "frontline"-- >> the question is when do you take away somebody's liberty? >> narrator: "right to fail".

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♪ toryarrator: this is a that is set in new york city, miles away from the tall buildings anhigh-rent neighborhoods of manhattan and brooklyn. it's about people with serious mental illness and who decides where they live. here on the outskirts of the city, the state has long housed poor, psychiatricalldisabled people in places infamous for bad care they're called adult homes. ♪ >> in the adult home, there were people who were not getting the proper care, drugs and alcohol.

it was bedbug-infested. there was prostitution. >> there is this sense of being divorced from the world. d it's a separate reality separate way of dealing with people. >> i don't want to be in somebody else's buildiving a life that somebody else tells me to live. i want my life. my life. >> narrator: in 2014, a federal court order gave some se residents the chance to move out, to live independently in apartments, integrated into the community. it affected thousands of people. propublica reporter joaquin sapien spe more than a year looking into how the ruling was playing out and examining the raging debe behind it all, igout giving people with severe mental illness the to live independently and succeed on theiown terms.

but also the right to fail. >> up until the mid-1950s, early '60s, you had these huge state w hospitals thld hold sometimes a thousand people or more. w they were realehouses. lots of reports chronicled atrocities in state mental hospitals, and there was outy. so theoal of deinstitutionalization was to get these hospitals closed and to get people into the community. >> in new york state, the adulte would be the solution. but the adult homes were profit-driven resideial facilities that were called upon to become small psychiatric hospitals, but with none of the services, nonef the expertise, none of the training that a psychiatric hospital has.

in 2002, i wrote ahree-part series examining the whole system of adult homes in the s city ate. what i discovered was quite eye-opening: people dying and their corpse not being discovered for days; prostitution; drug abuse; physical abuse of residents. s people would have all so psychiatric breakdowns. they would get suicidal. there was a complete lack of any system that was taking care ofes people's needs. but the state regulators were not penalizing the homes. and i realized, well, they don' wantclose these places because they don't know what to do with these people. you know, they are truly some of the most voiceless people in society. and, as a result, the state, the government just wants to push them aside. ♪

there was really no effort to integrate them into the community. so, ultimately, it was kind of a catastroph failure of transferring the vision into practice. >> narrator: folwing cliff levy's investigation, advocates sued new york state in federal court, claiming it had segregated tho with serious mental illness-- their civil rights had been violated. the legal battle lasted 11 years. plaintiff attorneys brout in dozens of adult home residents, as well as experts. >> i was brought in to testify to this case because there was a huge question about whether people that had been institutionalized can live successfully in the community. and the judge heard loud and clear that people can live independently; that their psychiatric disability does not

define their existence. and they should have the same choices as the rest us. >> narrator: the 2014 court order applied to a class oft ab000 adult home residents, allowing them the choice to live independentlynd receive in-home care. the state woulplace them into an existing program called supported housing, overseen by the office of mental health.po >> sed housing was a particular model for people who are quite high-functioning. it's meant for people who can manage their medications, do some cooking, and pretty much take care of themselves. >> narrator: a plaintiff in the lawsuit, ilona spiegel, was one of the first people to be given an apartment as pa of the court order. she had lived in adult homes for years before moving int supported housing. >> i was scared. i was scar. >> sapien: why were you scared? >> um, i didn't know any

different. change is scary. and this was a major change.w i didn't knoat it was like anymore too into a supermarket or cook. but as time and the neighborhood became more and more friendly ed familial... it became easier aier. i felt like a human being for mae first time in so many years. >> narrator: lik residents in the court class, ilona can live independently without major problems. but there were concerns that the supported housing system ivuldn't handle people who needed more extecare.

in charge ofhe entire effort were the same government agencies in the state capital that had been sued over the adult homes. >> i explained that people fromt inutional settings, moving into more independent housing, will need a lot ofupport. i was very concerned that, atmi the expense anry of the people leaving the adult home, that this kind of model would just lead to really poor outcomes. ♪ he >> sapien:re had been stories already on the bad state psychiatric hospitals and bad adult homes. 's no oeally explored what it looks like when people leave. >> narrator: by the fifth year of the program, 770 people had moved from adult homes of the about 4,000 who were eligible.

owey'd been given the right to choose where ando live, and promised enough support. but propublica and "frontline" found more than two dozen cases where people were struggling or outright failing to adjust. cases that exposed the risks at the heart of the program, fromid tifying the right people to providing enough care. >> sapien: how long were you in your own apartment? >> maybe three months, i'm not sure. >> sapien: how did it gobahen you move? >> i cried. i don't want to struggle no more. >> narrator: once an apartment is availablethe move is immediate. there is no gradual transition. >> i mean, basally, they said that i was going to get a roommate, but i'm supposed to know what this person is like from a fe-minute meeting. >> narrator: for some, the new freedom was tomuch. they wound up on the street or back in adult homes. >> people feel that when they leave, they get the apt and they say, "i'm cured, i have an apartment." god knows what they're going to do.

>> narrator: somhad become dangerous to themselves. for abraham clemente, who has t schizophrenia,hings went well to first. and then he starteefuse care. >> sapien: so, abraham, how's, how long have you been here for? >> i don't know.ap >>n: you don't know? >> for eternity. >> sapien: for eternity? >> i've seen people move in, people move out. >> sapien: it looks like youn might havefection of some kind on your finger there. >> oh, because i hit myself with a surgical hammer. and i banged it and it swelled up. and then it started bleeding pus and everything. >> sapien: when was that? >> a couple of months back. nt sapien: it's been like that for a couple of ? >> (coughs): yeah. it's going to take a long time

to heal because i'm a diabetic. >> sapien: what's that? >> that's dog (bleep). a dog walked in here and took a (bleep) there. >> sapien: do you feel like you need somebody to help you? >> no. they interfere. i do it myself. >> i live in this building, but i'm scared. he put a chicken in the oven and he totally forgot about the chicken. d it was a lot of smoke. i live on the third floor, you know i'm lucky i got a fire escape. he need a lot of help. r lly do. >> narrator: under the supported housing system, abraham was allowed to live this way, even to refuse care. >> in order for somebody to have agency, dignity, integrity, they have to be able to make a choice.e even if thoices are bad choices. >> sapien: it does seem like we're at a point now where we're

letting people who hallucinate, hear voices, are very delusional make their own decisions on where they should live. >> we are doing that.ly absolu i tend to take the position of, re freedom is better than less freedom, but there are cases whe you have to wonder. like, you know, what are we doing? >> narrator: abraham clemente was one of the most challenging cases, because he was refusing care. but we found other stories that raised concerns about theog prm, even when care was being accpeted. one ca is particular kept coming up, a man who had been institutionalized most of his adult life. he was 52 when he got his chancl e independently for the first time. s s name was nestor bunch. caregivers said perience

reflected some of the biggest shortcomings of the court-ordered program. ar door slams) joaquin was given an address for nest in queens, an apartment above a fast food restaurant. nestor was no longer living there; another participant in the supported housing program had taken his place. >> sapien: do you know of a guy, nestor bunch?to he useive here, right? >> yeah. >> sapien: you don't have anyhe idea wheoved out, do you? >> no. >> sapien: yeah. >> narrar: there was another address where nestor once lived, his old roommate was still there. living with him, i found out the guy needed help. he didn't last here that long. >> sapien: right. >> sapien: not even a month? >> not even a month here. i don't know where they put him at right now. he might be in jamaica

psychiatric. or in jail psychiatric. who knows where's this guy at? >> sapien: i'm working on a story about supported housing.s hiname was nestor bunch. i know he lived here because he's received mail there. okay, thanks. >> nrator: joaquin found a healthcare worker who'd kept case files that might help locate nestor. but the documents had been thwn out just before he arrived and had to be retrieved from a dumpster. >> oh, man, this is like christmas. >> sapien: let's see. we need to find the top part ofc this sheet bause,un rtunately, it ends at buchanan and we don't have the top part, which would have... >> sapien: nestor bunch. >> ah! where's nestor bunch? >> narrator: joaquin had been a oking for nestor for about a month when he founurce who said he knew where he was.

it was a large building in brooklyn, used to temporarily house hundredsf people with mental illness, supervised around the clock. it was the opposite of independent living. >> sapien: i asked the first person i saw, "hey, do you know nestor bunch?" and he said, "yeah, that's me." nestor, thanks for meeting with us. i know it's not every day you have someone coming by. en oh, no, my pleasure. thanks for the aon. >> sapien: as i was explaining to you out in front that i'm a journalist. wh >> you know at's a good move? besides being a corrections officer? a spy and a detective and a detective and a spy. say defense lawyer. that's four syllables, right? >> sapien: right. >> that takes care of that, that takes re of that, that takes care of that, that takes care of that. >> sapien: what did they diagnose you with? >> uh, drug-induced schizophrenia. >> sapien: drug-inducedsc zophrenia? >> yeah. >> sapien: you used to take a lot of drugs? >> yeah, yeah. >> sapien: oh, yeah? um, i know you've got a unique

story. it's important to the subject i'm writing about, which has to with people moving out adult homes... >> right. >> sapien: ...and into their own apartments. which i understand was your experience, right? >> uh, somewhat. i think i was living in that queens adult center, that place there. but it didn't work out. >> sapien: do you know how long you were at the queens adult care center? >> um, about a month. >> sapien: about a month? >> yeah. >> sapien: he could not piece together time. you know, he thought that he wat he queens adult care center for weeks. he wasctually there for six years. do you feel like you were ready to be on your own? >> yeah. you know, what happened is, they just brought me the and said, "ta-da! this is your apartment." everything was set.ey ere making sure i eat. they were making sure i had hot water, but tuldn't do it. so that's where they moved me to another place, yeah.

>> sapien: was it above a icken takeout place? golden krust? >> exactly. and my roommate, he was naked and funky and listening to music and stuff. >> sapien: and that first roommate, what was his name? >> i'm not sure. jiffy passed away on me. and i couldn't make heads or tails of it. >> sapien: right. en narrator: it was difficult to know what had haed to nestor in supported housing: he experiences hallucinations, hears voices, and has lo gaps in his memory.o >> sapien: had to go out and basically find witnesses to his life who could testify in a sense and tell us what exact had happened to him. we were in nestor's bedroomd one afternoon found a christmas card, and the return address was for nora weinerth.

nora has known nestor since his late 20s. >> look at these beautiful flowers. >> yeah. i >> ierited nestor. he is the son of a dear friend of mine. i loved him from the time i first met him. i just loved him. what other songs do you like? >> oh, aot of them. ♪ like a bridge over troubled waters ♪ >> ♪ over troubled waters >> ♪ i will lay me down >> narrator: nora said nestor had lived in a big psychiatric hospital before he moved into an adult home, then supported housing. >> he was his mother's only child, and she reared him very, very devotedlynd very lovingly. he was a healthy child until about 14 and 15. then he began to show some

signs, talking to himself, heic was hearing . that's a very frightening experience, because a person you know and love and have so much hope for has lost everything, the future. and elda becama very active advocate, which was her way of managing the deep, deep agonofch losing her onld to mental illness. this is elda. she claimed to be 5'2". actually she was 4'6". she got a lot of joy from her activism. >> sapien: wow. this fact that she had bn a advocate of, you know, some renown, known by president clinton and others, came to our

attention through nestor. i didn't believe it. but here's the evidence. couldn't he been more clear that it really did happen. >> yes. >> sapien: she signs almost every letter "single mother ofn a wonderful th schizophrenia." >> that was an important thingto ay, because, to show that people who have mental illness through no fault of their own, like nestor, are not discards-- they're loved. >> sapien: this is really interesting, because it has to do with supported housing. she's exessing support for the inclusion of $423 million in supportive houng funds in iv93, which means that 23 years later, her son wasg in a supported housing apartment, which is something that she had advocated for. >> yes.ie >> s but he doesn't have the success that she would have hoped for.do hoou think she would feel about what happened with her son? >> i don't have the words to

descbe how upset she would b >> narrator: nestor wad into his first apartment in july 2015. it was a small walk-up studio out by jfk airport. he was alone and unsupervised for the first time in his life. >> ntor called me up and tol me he was going to be moved to an apartment in a private house. >> sapien: and so what was your feeling about that? i me, were you... >> i was very worried about things that can go wrong. is someone going to help him straighten things out? he needs a lot of help. he does. >> narrator: nestor was being cared for by two non-profite agencies, onlled federation of organizations coordinated medical care.ne they decto be interviewed. the other, icl, was in charge of housing and provided weekly visits.ic s c.e.o., david woodlock,

agreed to review nestor's recos. >> nestor very much wanted to live on his own. and that was really clear. whether or not he appreciated what that was going to be li for him or not, you know, i think we all went into that trying to do our best, including nestor. >> narrator: nestor gave us permissi to access thousands of pages of his medical records, from at least eight separate care providers. among them was the assessment esused to determine if a rident is too dangerous to themselves or others to live independently. his assessment noted heop wanted to is medication. it also said that he was hearing voices and believed e could heal others telepathically. based on the court settlement, none of this was disqualifying. >> my job when i first met nestor was helping him pack his medication every week. because the idea was that he needed to be comfortable with

doing it himself independently. >> narrator: shaquan young was one of nestor's care coordinators and one othe only people who directly worked with nestor who would go on camera. >> sapien: so what was your gut sense of how he was going to do on his own? >> it seemed to me like he was on his way to independence. you know, um... >> sapien: a when did that start to change? >> when he started going to the hospital on his own because of his own suicidal ideations. >> narrator: in nestor's medical records, we found that his hrst experience with independent livi lasted five months. then he was admitted to a psychiatric ward. after months of reporting, his story was coming into focus. >> sapien: um, nestor, you'd asked how we got interested in your story, right? >> (chuckles): yeah.

>> sapien: yeah. that's probably a good place to start, actually. i went to the queens adult care center. you remember that place? >> yeah. >> sapien: where you lived in elmhurst? >> yeah, yeah. who toldou about me? >> sapien: well, a bunch of people, actually. >> how are they doing over there? they don't deserve to be there. i hope they get homes and stuff. beautiful happy homes and stuff. >> sapien: yeah.yo so dremember when you first moved out of the adult home? >> yea what happened is, i went to an apartment for me. i had no heat. no hot water. >> sapien: did it feel like you were left alone? >> i had no company, actually. so that's why i decompensated. >> sapien: i have some records th show that you wanted to hurt yourself when you were in that first apartment. >> oh, my god, yeah. >> sapien: and you went to elmhurst hospital to get help. >> yeah, hmm. >> sapien: why do you think you would have said things like, "oh,'m gonna poke my eyes," or, "i'm gonna cut my wrists"? do you think you felt

overwhelmed? >> look at my eyes for a second. >> sapien (chuckles): nestor. that was pretty wild. >> so, i look at that and i said if i tried poke my eyes out, these things'd say, "no!" it seems to say, "don't poke ur eyes... no!" and, yeah, that's one answer, indubitably, if you know what i, what i mean. >> narrator: nestor's recordsoo show a lack ofinated care. multiple agencies hadn't been able to get his subsidy checks to him. he didn't have money to spend on food and couldn't pay his rent. the apartment was a mess-- "dirt/grime in the bathroom. the smell of urine." he felt hopeless. ultimately, the agencies decideh at nestor needed somebody else, a roommate. that roommate would be bernard walker. ♪

>> bernard and i were four years apart. growing up, he was just like any other brother. we always had our good times and acr bad times. he was always a peul, quiet person. he was never, you know, going crazy and yelling. but sometimes he would just be rocking like that, so then i know that, okay, bernard is in his little zone at tint, you know? >> the housing program and icl felt like nestor would be bettet suited to lih a roommate. the idea was that, okay, if you have a roommate that's higher- functioning, you would probay follow that person's lead, your roommate's lead. nestor bunch definitely seemed to be in more of a need thand. bern >> my biggest concern aboutar bernd having his own place

was, did they properly train him to be sufficient in that vironment? >> sapien: how about the idea of him helping somebody else with all that stuff? >> i would say no. i would say no. it's scary just thinking about it. i'm wrenching my hands, like, he hanto care for someone else addition to himself? no, no. >> narrator: berna was living in the apartment above the fast food restaurant in queens. he had been one for two months and feeling isolated before nestor arrived. but their pairing was short- lived, only 16 days. e. bernard, he was nice. he would say hi to he would say hi to the kids. so it's very sad. but at that time, we already started saying, "there's something wrong with h." ♪

he would come out, knock on the door in undeears, trying to sell you therocery, ask you for change all day lg. and he was becoming worse. and like two days before, he kept banging harder and harder, doing it more and more. that day, he came early in the morning and he was knocking on the door in underwears. and i told him, "canlease stop coming to my door?" like, "i got kids. i got my daughters here." it was in january, and it was the big storm. and it was real cold. we decided we're going to go get some snacks. and when we came out, he was in the bottom stairs dead, naked. whh means he was wandering around naked. nestor was there living with him and i knocked.

"can you please go check?"en and hedown and he said, "oh, it's bernard. he's dead." and i caed the cops. >> sapien: i tnk it would be pretty painful. >> yeah. >> sapien: so we'll approach ity delica >> mm-hmm. >> sapien: all right. you ready for this? >> narrator: bernard's brother f michael ismer new york city police officer. he helped get the medicalep examiner'st on bernard's death. until now, he hadn't looked at it. >> sapien: so that's the building. >> mm-hm >> sapien: oh, man. look at all that snow outside. >> yeah. >> sapien: you sure you wanto see all this? >> i'm good.

my brother was found totallyna d. was he taking his medication? was he not taking his medication? um, what was going on prior to that? >> narrator: bernard's medical records show that within a month of moving in, he was struggling. >> sapien: we know from neighbors that he's outside practicing karate in the cold in his underwear in the days before his death. he's on a battery of medication that includes antipsychotics and other drugs for his physical health. and he's inconsistent about taking that medication. i mean, he's clearly not doing well in the days before he dieds this pronote is from january 22. his icl case worker shows up to check out his apartment, sees that he's not there, and leaves. >> narrator: later that day, a caseworker from the otherro not saw him for 15 minutes to check that he had his medicine. two days later, bernard was

dead. >> sapien: so one of the things that nestor mentions is that bernard was walking around naked a lot in the days prior to his death. would that be cause for concern or further investigation for icl? >> sure, to the extent that those are symptoms of his not managing stress well or those kinds of things or someen potential decotion. sure, that would tend to trigger either additional services, a different kind of check, touching base with the o psychiatrithe therapist, depending on how serious it was judged to be. >> sapien: so, this is a guy who's got schizoaffective disorder, hajust moved into the community, paired with somebody who arguably is less functional than he is, and he's found naked and dead on a freezing cold day. what does icl do? tando our best to unde what happened, which i don't think... and, again, i have not

reviewed his recor, so i can't speak to any of the specifics of his care. wat i do understand is, as you mentioned, that ... an attempt to visit him was two days prior to that and, as i understand, no particular reason for alarm at that point. >> sapien: but he wasn't there. >> right. people live on their own. i mean, that's, you know, i'm sure peoe would have come back to visit him a few days later, which is sort of the cycle of things. i mean, these are not 24-hour supervised settings, nor were n ey intended to be. >> narrator: but ises like bernard's, it was that lack of supervision that had criticswo ied in the first place. and all along, a federal court monitor had been warning of a systemic lack of coordation among the agencies implementing the prram.

>> it's a bureaucracy. so there's no one single point responsibility that you could point to. even, even in the monitor's report, there's state office of mental health, there's the department of heal. it's, like, which commissioner is going to actually... you know, where does the buck stop? where's that desk that says "the buck stops here" on the adult home case? that's what i'd like to know. >> narrator: no one from the new york office of mental health would go on camera. in an email, they said the vast majority of former adult-homehr residents haveed in their new homes, and the move has given em hope and opportunity. they acknowledged that a small percentage d not succeed in oppported housing. "frontline" and lica asked about those cases for months. finally, they said 39 residentse rned to adult homes and 33 had died. they wouldn't provide any other details. (phone dialing out)

>> detective gallagher. >> hey, how you doing, detective gallagher? this is retired officer p.o. walker. how're you doing? >> good, how are you? g d, good. i have you on speakerphone. i'm in just a room with one of my friends. he's a reporter. we're trying to get information on what happened with my brother. >> i mean, there really wasn't much to it. passed away due to hypertensive cardiovascular disease. looks like he had a heart attack. >> yeah, i went to the m.e.'s office and i got their fullrt extensive ren that. >> sapien: what was your stinct to find him in that kind of condition, i mean, given that hwas naked? >> well, at first, it was odd and then after speaking to nest, nestor said that he wa running around the house naked all the time. you know, we had asked nestor if he knew if benny was taking his medicine, but he couldn't say for sure. >> sapien: given that he was mentally illnd the condition that he was found, is there any

igpe of procedure or requirement for a follow-up toe out, you know, if he was taking care of his medication or if he was being prerly taken care of? >> it wasn't followed up on per se. >> narrator: michael walker kept d wondering what more coulhave been done to prevent his brother's death. ♪ >> i was caring for nestor's mother at the time.a and i goll from the police saying, "don't worry, nestor is alive, but his roommate is dead." nestor said he was fine. but it's a very shocking, e traumatizierience. i wanted to know his condition as a result of thiexperience.

ted then, only a few days his mom died. >> sapien: were you two very close? >> who, me and my mom? yeah. >> sapien: did you say goodbye to her? >> no, if i said gooye, i would have been destroyed. my mom was just, like, kind of unconscious, you know?ju and sh fell asleep, i guess, you know? d after that, well, nora came up to me and said, "regito, your mom died." and i said, "oh, my god, what happened?" and she said, "she died of cancer and pneumonia." it was the most powerful blow i ever felt in my life, you know?) (sig

♪ >> it was awful, just tragic.mo hipassed away, his roommate had passed away. we and even thougidn't see any emotion, we didn't see him processing his grief, we didn't see him grieving, but you knew. like, it was showing through his actions, you know? it was showing through that-- not eating, not taking hisdi tion. i asked nestor, was evything all right? his speech was very fast, but i couldn't comprend it. his words were very slurred. that was a clear indicator that he wast doing well. so i called 911. e.m.s. came. they very delicately, very

gingerly, they brought nestor downstairs. and they brought him to long island jewish hospital. (sirens wailing) >> narrator: nestor was put in a veychiatric ward for several weeks, then was again. >> sapien: according to this document, the care coordinator "was not even told that they m.were considering moving she's thperson that's responsible for making sure that nestor has the services in place to live safely in the counity. this document shows she doesn't even know where he is. >> narrator: he was in another queens neighborhood. in a small brick rowhouse. this new roommate had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and had a historyf evere alcohol abuse. almost four months after hemo

d in, nestor was found badly injured with broken ribs and kidney damage. his medical records say he'd likely been beaten. >> sapien: so, nestor, we're just trying to piece together uat may have happened to after you were in the hospital after your mother died. do you remember when yoved in with the guy that you told me about? >> yeah, what about him? >> sapien: and you went to the hospital while you were living with him. >> right. y >> sapie got hurt. >> got hurt? >> sapien: do you remember any of that? >> i just wound up in the hospital, and i say, "gee, i'm here in wonderland," you know? >> somebody called to say that he was in the hospital. the doctor hypothesized that he had been beaten up by someone. his ribs were broken. the doctor said it looked like he had been on the ground anded was kiadly enough for his kidneys to have stoppednc oning. >> sapien: there's supposed to be this whole network of professionals involved in his life. >> to keep track of him, yes. >> sapien: were they able to

answer any of those questions for you? >> nobody said anything. nobody really seemed interested in that. i don't know, but it was a very thorough, systematic beating, id se w >> sapien: so i jut to make sure that i understand. nestor is an extremely vulnerable pern. doctors think there may have been an assault. >> mm-hmm. >> sapien: and there's no efs.rt to find out if there an again, i would just say nestor, as i underit, never reported to us, anyway,be that he ha assaulted. there were any number of reasons for the symptoms that he was experiencing. ai he had collapsed on the street and fallen t a step-- i'm speculating completely now-- could have potentially hurt his ribs. but in the absence of some ltason to think it was necessarily an ass everything else is speculation. >> sapien: but given what we know about nestor, right, i mean, he was unconscious. >> mm-hmm. >> sapien: he's schizophrenic. just because he said he couldn't

remember what happened doesn't necessarily mean nothing happened. >> it doesn't mean it didn't happen. it doesn't mean it did, either. i mean, something ceainly happened. >> narrator: nestor spent five days in the i.c.u. and more an three months in the hospital and rehab. then the agencies overseeing his care returned him to independeni li. >> i felt like nestor definitely required some intensive assistance long before he was assaulted. i used to mention this a lot with nestor's therapist at n york psyotherapy. nestor's therapist was very, very, very vocal about nestor. >> sapien: the therapist expresses her disagreement with nestor's discharge back to the community, stating that she

believes that this was an unsafe discharge for nestor. let me ask you this, what does it take to move someboo a higher level of care? >> it requires the entire team to agree. so, the department of health, the office of mental health, and the clinical team mbers have to agree that a person has to go back to a higher level of care before they'll do it. there's some risk involved sometimes. but there's risk involved for anybody if you're going to move forward in your life. (knocking on door) >> sapien: hey, abraham. are you home? >> narrator: it was one of the hottest days of the summer. >> sapien: abraham, you home? (knocking on door) >> narrator: abraham clemente pesn't answering his door. a caseworker who hd to be in the building called 911. (siren wailing, approaching)

>> abraham? this place is a mess. (toy whirring) (man speaking on police radio) >> good morning, officer. >> how you doing, mr. clemente? >> i'm doing all right. >> you feel dehydrated? >> no, no, no. >> no, you feel fine? >> no, i'm fine. i'm fine. >> okay. i still want e.m.s. to come checyou out, okay? we're just a little concerned for you. >> whatever you want, officer. you know, i'here all alone, i don't want to abandon this place. i want to live like a human being. >> sapien: yeah. >> be human, you know, like being in the jungle. (device beeping) >> hey, abraham. >> mm-hmm? >> do you feel dizzy or short of breath or anything like that? any pain anywher >> no, no pain. >> i remember, i've seen you before. i remember you. you know what month it is? >> um, uh, no. >> your sugar's a little high.

it's 209. squeeze in oyour hand. >> we're going to the hospital? >> yeah, we're going to have to go to the hospital to gett, checked kay? >> all right. >> a lot of people feel like, who are we to say you are not well enough, you shouldn't be ling on your own? who are we to infringe on somebody's freedom? other people say, ll, that's just a copout. are you giving me my right to fail? or are you letting me cling tomy ight to be free to such an extent that it's going to be tht of me? >> narrator: it ok another two months and one psychiatric hospital admission before abraham's caregivers determined he could not live on hiswn. he ended up back at an adult home. >> i don't want to go back on my own. i can't live like that again.

nobody to talk to. nobody to check on me. i felt lonely. worthless. unwanted. unloved. i don't want to live like that again. i'm going to fail. i don't want to fail. n (car hnking) >> sapien: hey, man. >> how are you? >> narrator: when joaquin last samichael walker, he'd promised to keep looki what led to the death of his brother beard during the winter storm in 2016. >> sapien: it's been a long haul. there's a few things in here that i wanted to show you.

one of the things we did learn is that there was anig inveion into your brother's death. >> conducted by? >> sapien: it's not clear if it's by the department of health or t office of mental health but they did say, and i have that correspondence in here, too, after many, many repeated questions, they won't tell usre thlts of the investigation. they said that it would be an unwaanted invasion of your brother's privacy to release the investigation. and these documents are exempt from the freedom of information law, anyway. i asked, you know, "does ts mean that the family is neverhe going to getnvestigation?" >> mm-hmm. >> sapien: and they said, "yeaht right." it takes us several months toen et confirmation that there was an investigation done, period. and here we are, almost a year later, and we still don't know... >> and still... we have nothing. >> sapien: ...what the results of tt investigation were.

>> yeah-- i can't understand why the agency is not freely giving the information. >> sapien: to you, at >> as a family member, to me. as a family member. at would, that would jus clear the table of anything, you know? we have the m.e.'s report, we have the police report, it's there-- we can read it. we'll break it down, no problem. but now the agency itself conducted their investigation. how far did they go? or was it just a curso investigation? ♪ >> narrator: since the new york court case, at least nine other stes are pursuing similar independent living programs for people with severe mental illness, despite the risks. on response to reporting by propublica and "ine," the federal judge overseeing the new york court settlement has ordered an investigation into how caregivers report

bad outcomes. >> ...corrections officer? spy and a detective, and a detective and a spy. >> narrator: only two weeks after being sent home from the hospital in january 2017, nestor bunch was found by police freezing on a sidewalk, alone. he spent another four months in a psychiatric hospital. but after all he had been through, nestor still hoped to live independently. >> i'm not worried so much about... well, i want to get an apartment and at the same time... >> sapien: your own apartment. >> yeah. >> oh, this looks like it, okay. (door clicks) >> oh, reggie.s. >> hey, fo >> hey, reggie. reggie. >> hey, beautiful. h >> gorgeous. >> hello, love.

>> oh, it's so nice to see you. how are you doing? >> good. >> are you jeanne?m >> yes, anne. >> hi, jeanne. >> jeanne, i'm tom. >> nice to meet you.ar >>tor: three years after nestor'd left the adult home, he had finally been placed in a specl apartment, with a high level of care, and with a new roommate, jeanne. >> this is my room. i have an air conditioner. >> yeah, it's nice. >> air conditioner in the back, right? my tv. my cassette. and my record player.t got a nicebed. come on, let's check out the rest of the apartment. >> nestor is getting the supports now that he needs. he's flourishing. when i call him, he sounds wonderful."o h, hi, nora. hi, nora." he is engaged. and expresses joy. >> the one thing i do appreciate about me being alone is, i do make my own decisions, you know? and there's something called t declaration of independence, you know what that is?

well, it'sn excellent example of what a person can be by themselves. >> narrator: in fact, nestor had technically failed o supported housing. it now has an aide that spends four hours a day whim seven days a week. y so when was the last ti heard voices, nestor? >> um, the last time i heard voices was, oh, about, um, about two minutes ago. >> oh, yea what'd they say? >> like, a frog lost his arm. >> wow.av they't said anything mean or tell you bad things? >> no, just funny things thatth don't mean to say. inthink the medication's helping me to not see th i shouldn't, you know? >> mm-hmm, you haven't seen anything, then? >> no, not really. but i want medation for my hearing, you know? >> yeah, yeah. a >> narrator: y this extra care is not meant to be permanent. if nestor continues to do well, f it could trigger removale support and a return to the

program he'dtruggled in. ♪ >> the system can work. we see it with nestor now. but i've seen the system fail him very badly. and if the system wis the very elements that allow nestor to progrs, then what happens? i'm very conceed about that. his survival is at stake. pi >> we go food shop, do the laundr we do some cleaning and some more cleaning. i watch tv. i listen to music, music tv. i sleep. i wake up. i take a shower. i get dressed.

i hang out. >> go to pbs.org/frontline for more reporting from our partners at propublica, and more about the challenges of reporting this story. >> hey abhraham! ho here for? you been >> i don't know. >> you don't know? >> for eternity. >> for eternity?>> don't... >> and learn more about how supported housing works in other state connect to the "frontline" community on facebook and twitter. then sign up for our newslettero at pbs.orgline. >> narrator: he was on the run for 16 years. >> the man accused of beg the butcher of bosnia... >> narrator: then, on trial for genocide. >> i will ask that you give the people of bosnia the truth about what ratko mladic did. >> narrator: with exclusive access to both sides. >> all that the evidence says r that olient is not guilty. that's my firm belief.

>> narrator: "frontline" goes inside the historic trial of an accused war criminal. t he time has come for general mlad to be held accountable. >> fne is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. and by the corporation for public broadcasting. major support is provided by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to buildg a more just, verdant and peaceful world. rie ford foundation: working with visio on the frontlines of social change worldwide.on addi support is provided by the abrams foundation, committed to excellence in journalism. the park foundation, dedicated to heightening public awareness of criticaes. the john and helen glessner family trust.ng supporrustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. the heising-simons foundation:le unlocking kne, opportunity, and possibilities. and by the frontline journasm fund,

with major support from jon and jo ann hagler. and additional support the ruggles family foundation. captioned by media acss group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> for more on this and other t "frontline" programs, vir website at pbs.org/frontline. ♪ torder "frontline's" "right to fail" on dvdop visit bs, or call 1-800-play-pbs. this program is also available on amazon prime video. ♪

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narrator: on this episode of "earth focus"...los angeles is known for its urban sprawl and traffic-clogged system of freeways rather than itsiv diverse array ofg species. the second-most-populated city in america is actually biodiverse hotspot--one oft jfew in the entire world. within the confines of this concrete jung, species are adapting and, in some cases, even thriving. welcome to the los angeles urban wild.