Non-police alternatives to mental health crises are underfunded

Non-police alternatives to mental health crises are underfunded

On the morning of March 20, Tonya Kersey left for a doctor’s appointment and told her 36-year-old son, Aaron Rainey, that she’d be back in a couple of hours. She remembers him sitting on the couch in her North Philadelphia row house, where he often hung out during the day.  Around 11 a.m., a neighbor called Kersey to say Rainey was in the middle of a nearby street with no clothes on, yelling. The neighbor gave him a blanket. Then the police show…