Meet Your Akron Neighbor: Kenny Boldt

I did this interview on Friday, September 8, 2023. Kenny had just lost his housing. He was probably in that house for about 6 months. You'll see in the video that he puts all the blame on himself. But that's never the way any of this works.

Yes. There is personal responsibility. But how the HELL could Community Support Services not get him psychological treatment? He deals with hallucinations. He can't work with other people without blowing up.

Kenny can blame himself all he wants. But this is a complete and total failure of the system. Someone needed to be working on getting him on disability. I know many people less ravaged by mental illness than Kenny that have their disability payments.

He was going to Community Support Services regularly. He was doing everything they told him to do to get into that house. And then when he got in the house they declared it "Mission Accomplished" and closed the book on Kenny.

We ALL know that if a person doesn't have income, or a very clear line on income, Rapid Rehousing doesn't work. IT NEVER WORKS in cases like these. We all know it and yet the system sets guys like Kenny up for failure.

"Housing First", which is what this Rapid Rehousing program represents, is the idea that you get a person into housing and then you work with them to get the other stuff. "Housing First" is a near total failure in Akron because they just do "Housing Only." Now we have a guy who can't do Rapid Rehousing for years.

He will be moved to the bottom of every single list of housing options because he "failed." Kenny is looking at another 5-6 years, EASILY back on the street. And it's worse out here because they have turned me into a criminal for trying to shelter guys like Kenny.

This is a failure on Community Support Services, United Way who runs the Rapid Rehousing program, and of course the Summit County Continuum of Care. The Summit County Ohio homeless services system is a complete and total failure.