According to the AP:
New York City is buying one-way plane tickets for homeless families to leave the city. It’s part of a Bloomberg administration program to keep the homeless out of the expensive shelter system, which costs $36,000 a year per family. More than 550 families have left the city since 2007. All it takes is for a relative to agree to take them in.
The city employs a travel agency for domestic travel and the Department of Homeless Services handles international travel. City officials say there are no limits on where a family can be sent and families can reject the offer. Families have been sent to 24 states and five continents, mostly to Puerto Rico, Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas.
No surprise this program has created some controversy from people who say the program doesn’t cure homelessness, it just puts it in somebody elses backyard. What do you think?
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
i think its a great idea.
us californians need to come up with these things!! c’mon arnold!
I agree it’s a great idea!!
its kind of fucked up but on other side he helping them?
abyways there are way too many homeless people in new york
This is a good idea for homeless families… but most of NY’s homeless population are single adults who are either mentally handicapped or drug addicted. I doubt that any of them would have family anywhere else willing to take them in.
i think it is curing homelessness, they are being sent back to live with relatives, they are given a home!
gentrification..