ProPublica, June 2, 2020: Senior Citizens in Subsidized Housing Have Been Dying Alone at Home, Unnoticed Because of Coronavirus Distancing
Someone needed to check on Leonard Graves. The 57-year-old lived alone in a senior building on Chicago’s North Side, and no one had seen him in at least two days.
Volunteers called community ambassadors usually checked on fellow residents in the Edith Spurlock Sampson Apartments, a 394-unit Chicago Housing Authority complex. But after the coronavirus began spreading in Chicago, leaders say the CHA suspended the program.
With the help of a building maintenance worker, a worried friend entered Graves’ apartment on March 14. Inside, they found him face down on the kitchen floor. From the condition of his body, it was clear he had been dead for some time. He appeared to have died of natural causes.
