Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival, and Hope in an American City

by Andrea Elliott

Chanel had pulmonary tuberculosis—likely a recurrence of the illness she had contracted as a child, at a homeless shelter in Queens. Here in Staten Island, a doctor gave Chanel the Percocet, saying it would relieve her pain. After three weeks in the hospital, she was discharged with a prescription for OxyContin—120 pills per month. As Chanel got hooked on Oxy, she kept telling herself that a doctor had prescribed it. This was “medicine.” How could it be “unhealthy”? Soon, Supreme was also addicted to opioids, joining the tide of white Americans who had fallen to the same fate. When Dasani’s parents could no longer buy pills on the street, they turned to heroin, keeping their habit below the radar of ACS. Supreme and Chanel bobbed and weaved through a fog of addiction. In their best moments, they held jobs—Supreme as a barber and Chanel as a park maintenance employee, earning $3,038 in 2009. But no job lasted, and Chanel’s inheritance was soon spent.