Homeless Residents Got One-Way Tickets Out of Town. Many Returned to the Streets.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

SEATTLE — The solution is cheap and simple: As cities see their homeless populations grow, many are buying one-way bus tickets to send people to a more promising destination, where family or friends can help get them back on their feet.

San Francisco’s “Homeward Bound” program, started more than a decade ago when Gov. Gavin Newsom of California was the city’s mayor, transports hundreds of people a year. Smaller cities around the country — Myrtle Beach, S.C., and Medford, Ore., among them — have recently committed funding to the idea.

And in Seattle this past week, a member of the King County Council proposed a major investment into the region’s busing efforts, fearing that the city was on the receiving end of homeless busing programs from too many other cities.

But do these transport programs actually help people find stable housing? For many of those offered a bus ticket, they do not.

In San Francisco, city officials checking on people in the month after busing them out of town found that while many had found a place to live, others were unreachable, missing, in jail or had already returned to homelessness. Within a year, the city found that one out of every eight bus ticket recipients had returned and sought services in San Francisco once again.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/homeless-residents-got-one-way-tickets-out-of-town-many-returned-to-the-streets/ar-AAHisqC?li=BBnb7Kz

[progree]

1. I'm sure the San Francisco officials consider this a tremendously good return on investment

Within a year, the city found that one out of every eight bus ticket recipients had returned and sought services in San Francisco once again.

meaning that 7/8 of them disappeared for a year or more, or at least didn't seek services from San Francisco.