NYC Buying One-Way Tickets For Homeless Families To Leave

New York Times :

They are flown to Paris ($6,332), Orlando ($858.40), Johannesburg ($2,550.70), or most frequently, San Juan ($484.20).

They are not executives on business trips or couples on honeymoons. Rather, all are families who have ended up homeless, and all the plane tickets are courtesy of the city of New York (one-way).

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[sarah fairchild]

Aid of this kind can be a godsend. I have given bus tickets and gas money personally to quite a few people who ended up stranded and living on the streets. A couple of times I was actually repaid by people months later when they had established themselves at their new location.

[jr18]

Guiliani did the same thing years ago. It seemed to go unnoticed then.

[wonketteRAWKS]

Passing the buck again Bloomie?

[sunnybunny]

I haven't been homeless for a very long time now, but I can tell you if I were homeless, I wouldn't want to be in New York City. I would consider a ticket out of there a huge help.

[RazeTemple]

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

And tell thee, go ---- yourself.

[KarateKid]

That's how Joe Buck and Ratso went to Florida.

[LargeJ]

This morning on Fox and Friends (July 30th), Steve Doocy and the gang actually said this is a good idea. Well, they feigned a little outrage over the money it takes to do this program. Dude, Steve Doocy has no human qualities. None of them do.

[belyeu]

It's much cheaper to send a family on a one way trip to anywhere than it is to provide food, shelter and health care.This is America at it's most pathetic.

[UNLVGOP]

How can you say this is pathetic? NYC is giving these people the opportunity to go wherever they have friends/family willing to provide them shelter and food. How is this pathetic?

[mmonarch]

Just saw on our news in Greenville SC. Received 30 homeless. One of those interviewed said he had nowhere to go. This is Bloomberg's answer to his problem. What about the one's he creates somewhere else.

[mrsgm]

Its pushing the problem onto others. Plain and simple.

[sunnybunny]

I think a lot of people making these comments have never been homeless and so they don't realize how helpful something like this can be. They are just looking at the huge potential for abuse. They've actually had programs like this for years calling it "travelers aid" and other things. Sometimes relocation can be the answer (cost of living, job availability, and family support can make a lot of difference), but not if you don't have a good plan and a determination to make it work. (I know this from personal experience)

[UNLVGOP]

I don't get why people say this is a bad program. They are giving homeless people, if they want to, the opportunity to fly to a place where they have friends or family to take them in. This means they'll have a shelter and food, and they'll be more likely to get a job.

To say this doesn't solve the actual problem is crazy. It helps a lot. People are able to go anywhere they have family to get back on their feet. You can't end homelessness, it's impossible, some people choose to be that way. Some people make decisions that increase their odds of being homeless like dropping out of school, doing drugs, comitting crimes, etc.

Increasing wages will not decrease the number of homless people. A majority of these people probably aren't even qualified for many jobs, so it doesn't matter how much they pay. Raising minimum wages higher (and making it almost a living wage), and creating free healthcare, only deminishes motivation to further your education and qualifications. Why go through all the effort when you're guaranteed these things? High school dropouts and convicted drug addicts should not be allowed to collect gov't assistance....there are consequences for people actions.

[mrsgm]

I will say it again. They are pushing the problem onto others. By saying that they will just send them away, they are practicing social Darwinism. Just get them out of our city. Who cares what happens to the city they go to or the people who are sent there? Its gross in a way that is not immediately recognizable, but gross none the less.

[richdibo]

San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom, with his facade of compassion, will explain how to do it well. First thing a city has to do is create and foster homelessness by exploiting the poor with tickets and fines for minor infractions that are selectively enforced. Then illegally and deceptively confiscate property, such as vehicles - even though they are needed for employment to provide for one's family. Then staff social services with incompetents. Take away everything that a person needs to provide for themselves. Suck them dry - wipe them out. Then ask them if they want to return "home" on Greyhound.

I have seen it done.

[miamia]

I've always thought it would be better to be homeless in FL when I see people freezing on the streets in the winter.

[blindhog]

i wonder if Texas is doing the same thing to our middlewestern area. Recently, I have never seen so many Texas vehicles and so many new NON-ENGLISH speaking Hispanic in my life! This has happened within the last year.

Could someone tell me anything different????!!!!!!

[RazeTemple]

Interesting thought, but I don't believe that's why it's happening.

Midwestern states have been some of the very few that have kept unemployment numbers down during the recession, so it would not surprise me to see people just following the stable job markets, and following oil fields that have become active again in some areas over the past couple years.

[bpress]

Just a modern version of what had been called 'Grayhound Therapy' after the busline used to get them out of town and make them another city or state's problem.

[UNLVGOP]

But in this case they're only sending them places where they have family or friends to take them in. This is a very good program.

[WinstonSalem]

New Hampshire has been doing something similar for years -- their welfare is a 1-way bus ticket to Massachusetts.

[Fabini]

Unfortunately, Mass taxes keep pushin' 'em back.

[DeadPhish]

Are you kidding me? I am a Social Worker and this is a long-standing practice of MANY states and counties that endure higher homeless rates, which over-use the resources for the homeless in those particular areas.

In my town, the problem is the "homelss by choice" aka "a lifestyle" that taxpayers are forced to support.

The saddest part is that individuals and families that are truley in need have to fight the lifestyle crowd for the limited resources available. It should be a CRIME to actually "choose" to be homeless unless you have the money to support yourself, period. Don't even start with these homeless by choice folks having children and pets, the irresponsibility is amazing.

Entitled children of irresponsible and immature Baby Boomers. Thanks alot.

[JustinAddison]

This was sure my experience in my years of social service work. So many non-disabled people want aid money for their everyday living that there is not much left for those who have real emergencies.

[sunnybunny]

Homeless people and BUMS are 2 different things. Part of the problem with the current system is they don't distinguish those who are temporarily between houses and those who choose it as an alternative lifestyle. I disagree that any lifestyle choice should be illegal, but those individuals should not be able to recieve assistance.