Ken Leslie is the type of person who sees a problem and sets to work doing something about it.
Three years ago, he found out a $750 rental deposit was all that was preventing four chronically homeless local veterans from moving into voucher-assisted housing provided by the U.S. government.
RELATED: Area restaurants team with Veterans Matter to help house local vets
He realized the simple problem had a simple solution: find money to pay the deposit to the landlord, pushing those veterans —and others like them — over the threshold into housing.
The next morning, Leslie called ProMedica to ask for $26,250 in pilot funding from the Toledo Community Foundation’s ProMedica Advocacy Fund. Knowing veterans were waiting, he also asked to have the usual three-month due diligence process waived.
Seven days later, ProMedica came through with full funding. Three days after that, the first veteran family moved out of a shelter into housing.
Eleven days from idea to implementation.
“Black ops speed,” Leslie calls it.
Just like that, Veterans Matter was born.
“Our goal is simply to house as many veterans as we can, as fast as we can,” Leslie said. “Even one more night in a shelter is way too many for us.”
He makes it seem so simple. But that’s what he does.
He’s part realist, part idealist, the type of guy who dreams of ending veteran homelessness — and doesn’t let a little statistic like 57,000 homeless veterans still to go get him down.
Leslie is a comedian, but behind the jokes and jabs is a heart of pure gold and an unwavering passion for those he calls the unhoused. He knows what it’s like. He was one of them once.
Leslie soon discovered Toledo’s problem was a national problem, and Veterans Matter chapters have since started in seven states with 517 veterans housed so far.
John Mellencamp, Dusty Hill of ZZ Top, Susan Sarandon, Katy Perry, Kid Rock, Ice-T, Stevie Nicks, Kix Brooks of Brooks and Dunn, Willie Nelson and others have all opened their wallets and lent their names and voices in support.
Next month, dozens of local restaurants will join the fight.
Dine 419, a new week-long restaurant fundraising event, will raise money for Veterans Matter. You can help simply by going out to eat.
Participating restaurants so far include Bar 145°, Burger Bar 419, The Beirut, Black Pearl, The Blarney Irish Pub, Byblos, Hollywood Casino Toledo (Final Cut Steak & Seafood and Scene), La Scola Italian Grill, McDonald’s, Poco Piatti, Table Forty4 and Ye Olde Durty Bird. Hollywood Casino Toledo is the presenting sponsor. Toledo Free Press is the media sponsor.
“I just realized that I have a key to my own place, I know where I am going to be sleeping tonight,” reads a framed letter from a veteran in Leslie’s office. “It is like the stress of the last several years has been lifted off my shoulders at once.”
Let’s help Leslie show more veterans what their service means to us. Mark your calendars for Feb. 23-March 1 and join me at the table.
For more information, read more here or visit www.dine419.org.
Sarah Ottney is editor in chief of Toledo Free Press. She can be reached at sottney@toledofreepress.com or on Twitter at @sarahottney.
