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Ready or Not, a Home of Their Own
Washington Post
By, Marc Fisher
Thursday December 27, 2007
This is where Gregory Hart lived for most of the past two years: down an alley alongside Ben's Chili Bowl on U Street NW, next to a trash can, curled against a concrete platform. Here, gang toughs assaulted him with a baseball bat. Here, he raised rats in a box. Here, he relied on a dog and a cat -- Bam Bam and Little Bam Bam -- to wake him if danger lurked. Here, passersby called him "retard" and shouted at him to "get a job."
And this is where Gregory Hart has lived since last Thursday: in a spacious, sunny, well-heated three-room apartment he has entirely to himself, with a stove where he can cook chicken and gravy, and with a blue comforter he chose at Target and a bed where he can sleep as long as he wants without fear of attack.