Editor’s Note: Central Florida Public Media is not naming the woman we interviewed for this story as she is a member of a vulnerable population and asked to remain anonymous.
I won’t disclose her name, but when homeless activists found her camp in the east Orlando woods and saw her, they were worried her visibly infected leg would kill her.
It was discolored, swollen, and at 51 years old, having spent nearly seven years as a transient, unsheltered woman with substance use disorder, her health is waning. Without a car and living in the woods, without access to running water or easy access to medical treatment, a scratch from her kitten grew into a painful problem forcing her to use an old walker to get around…