Homeless get one-way tickets
New York City is buying one-way tickets for homeless families to leave the city, if they have relatives somewhere else to take them in. Under the initiative, hundreds of families have been given plane, rail, and bus tickets and even gas vouchers to leave the city.
Since its inception 10 months ago, the Homeward Bound program has put 814 homeless people on buses with one-way tickets out of San Francisco, to every state except North and South Dakota and Vermont, city officials say. It is the most extensive program of its kind in the nation, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness.
"We get people all the time who call and cry and say 'thank you for sending our brother or dad or daughter home," said Ben Amyes, the main street counselor for the program.
Those who come back apparently do so after getting cold feet on the bus ride. Robert Short, 38, was one who returned. Put on a bus in August for a three day-trip to Illinois, he got off at the Oakland Greyhound station and caught BART straight back to his usual panhandling spot on Van Ness Avenue.
"My aunt said she would take me back, but I didn't really want to go back," he said a week later. "I felt pressured by the cops, and it sounded like a good idea for a minute. But after I sat in that bus seat awhile, I said screw it, I'm not leaving."
Mayor Gavin Newsom was inspired to start Homeward Bound, he said, after reading a story in The Chronicle about a homeless woman, Rita Grant, who was rescued from the streets of San Francisco by her sister. She was taken by her family to Florida, where she is now healthy and happy.
"There were five of six months of debate on whether to do this program, but then I saw those pictures (of Grant), and they tipped me," the mayor said. "It made me think about how a big part of the solution to homelessness is re-engaging people with their families -- and since we started this, it's been an extraordinary thing, considering the impact on people's lives. It's been a quiet success."
In creating Homeward Bound, Newsom wasn't starting from scratch. He streamlined a process that existed for decades, through which San Francisco sent homeless people home -- but only after they qualified for welfare. The mayor called this an "absurd" requirement, since that meant linking people to a system in a city they were trying to leave.
The old way served a handful of people each year. Now, recipients can go home the same day they apply.
Since it began Feb. 7, the city has spent $80,000 on bus tickets -- a good investment, Homeward Bound managers say, considering many of those sent home were costing thousands of dollars in jail, medical and shelter services.
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