Interview by Ed Conn and Val Vetter
Ohio, US street paper Toledo Streets spoke to Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz about homelessness, poverty and other systemic issues in the Midwest city and across the US.
Toledo Streets: According to the Lucas County Homelessness Board, an estimated 1,600 people experience homelessness in Toledo, including 322 families with children.
In February of this year, you were quoted as saying: “We have come together to provide a programme that is going to allow hundreds of families in our community, more to the point hundreds of kids, to not have to worry about where they are going to sleep tonight.” How is this going?
Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz: That $2 million (£1.6 million) programme – a partnership with the Toledo Public Schools (TPS), the City of Toledo and Lutheran Social Services – is directed toward underserved TPS families that struggle with homelessness.
This article first appeared in Toledo Streets, a magazine sold on the streets of Ohio, USA, by people who have limited other ways of earning an income.