I heard its very common for people with serious mental illness to fall through the cracks of the mental health system for one reason or another It seems that this very well may be true for the woman who was your roommate. A lot of times patients who are involuntarily commited is because of their health insurance. IDK if this is true in her case As for her not keeping jobs a lot of mental health consumers's employment history is really spotty. That's pretty common . One way of combatting this fact are rehab centers called clubhouses. I was a member in West Phila. PA until the local community MH center closed it down. Never found out the reason.