The hidden cost when mental illness meets homelessness

It felt like they had chased the dream forever: to keep the homeless man in the red sneakers off the streets. Everyone in the Dorchester courtroom this September day knew David: the judge; the defense attorneys and the prosecutors; the caseworker from the state mental health department. For months, for years — even for decades — he had been a familiar figure here, arrested a staggering 150 times, usually on drug charges or for breaking and entering.