You're not understanding, all the locals have these awful stories because they all appeared at the same time. Tony Stark started orphanages after a bridge fell to combat homelessness. These kids were tortured for years in his program but his program hadn't even been out for months. They just appeared one day with these stories and they're all this brutal because they came from the same dark magic that held the city together.
This story is tragic, but it isn't real. Seth wasn't a social worker there for years. It didn't exist for years and neither did they.