There were welfare institutes in Gotham's Slums, but they covered only three communities there, and two of them had been built on streets with relatively good security.
Of course, "relatively good" was just that—relative. This had always been a marginalized district, where the only comparison was between bad and worse.
One of the orphanages had been founded by Wayne Enterprises, while another was a government welfare project. After considering it, Clark decided to visit the public welfare institute first.
From his experience in Metropolis, private welfare institutes generally had better conditions. Whether those wealthy people did it for tax breaks or to win public favor, they would at least make their face projects look decent. Businessmen always wanted to spend money where it counted. Never mind whether the management system was humane; at least the children were kept plump and healthy.
But some public welfare institutes received less attention, and their screening procedures for community volunteers were not strict enough. People with bad intentions often slipped through.
Clark, meanwhile, doubted whether Gotham even had volunteers with good intentions—or whether these lunatics were capable of having them. So far, things did not look promising.
It was an old building standing alone on the edge of the community, apparently built in the sixties or seventies. A faded sign hung over its entrance. When Clark landed, he saw several children playing in the backyard.
He rang the doorbell, but no one answered. So he simply pushed open the Iron Gate and walked in. He thought speaking to the children would be a good option. Without advance notice, it would be easier to get the truth from them.
Clark had only made it halfway across when he heard the children in the backyard talking.
"Did you sell that Batch of Goods already? This is