babylonsister (1000+ posts) Wed Jul-29-09 10:54 AM
Original message
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/29/new-york-ho...
New York gives homeless people a one-way ticket to leave city
Families given travel costs to tackle problem of overcrowded shelters and save taxpayers' money
New York has found a novel, if expensive, way of dealing with its overcrowded shelters – buying one-way tickets for homeless families to leave the city.
Under the initiative, by the administration of the mayor, Michael Bloomberg, hundreds of families have been given plane, rail, and bus tickets and even petrol vouchers to leave the city. One homeless family of five was given $6,332 (nearly £4,000) worth of travel costs to Paris, according to the New York Times.
The city justifies such costs because it argues the alternative is more expensive. It costs New York's taxpayers $36,000 to put up a homeless family in a night shelter for a year.
Families can qualify for the tickets if they have a relative in another part of the world, including the US, who says they are willing to house them.
Since the $500,000-a-year scheme was launched in 2007, 550 homeless families have been paid to leave the city. None have come back.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6176897New York has a huge problem with homeless people, but at least you no longer hear a word about the winos. They must all be gone.
I think maybe as soon as Giuliani got rid of the winos, the homeless came pouring in.
This relocation money can also be used to send destroyed NYU students back to Alabama.
Soylent Brice (1000+ posts) Wed Jul-29-09 10:58 AM
Response to Original message
1. *sigh*
makes you proud to be an amurikan, doesn't it.
babylonsister (1000+ posts) Wed Jul-29-09 11:04 AM
Response to Reply #5
8. The article also said...
What we're doing is passing the problem of homelessness to another city. We're taking people from a shelter bed here to the living room couch of another family. Essentially, this family is still homeless."
If you don't see what's wrong with this, I can't help you. What happens after their first big fight because they're laying on that couch too long? They become someone else's problem. And no, the city isn't putting a roof over their heads. They're depending on the kindness of others.
Will NY take them back if this plan falls through? I don't think so.
I think that would be a federal program. Stimulus funds to ship deadbeats from all over the country back into NYC.
Fumesucker (1000+ posts) Wed Jul-29-09 11:22 AM
Response to Reply #5
22. Ever had someone else living in your home with you?
I've put up relatives several times in my life, at the very best it's stressful.
My ex wife's sister in law lived with us a couple of times, after the last time it took me well over a year before the sound of her laughter didn't literally make the hair stand up on the back of my neck. Paying no bills at all she took two long hot showers a day, which made both our water and gas bills soar, she routinely adjust the thermostat without consulting us if she felt too hot or cold, she took whatever food she wanted from the refrigerator, often food that we were saving for ourselves and her footsteps were elephantine, the entire house shook every time she walked around.
To top it off, at the end of her stay we found out she had more money saved than we had the entire time she was with us.
I suspect a lot of these living arrangements that people are shipping out of NY for are going to purely temporary, for no other reason than that the family members putting up the homeless are going to get tired of them and eventually kick them out.
That ex-wife's SIL probably has a DU screen name.
paulsby (1000+ posts) Wed Jul-29-09 11:04 AM
Response to Original message
9. $36k for a year for a family in the shelter???
that's 3k a month. are you frigging kidding me?
paulsby (1000+ posts) Wed Jul-29-09 11:15 AM
Response to Reply #17
18. send em to buffalo
they could pay the mortgage on a kick-ass house for 3k a month. i'm just saying it SOUNDS insane.
DUmmy paulsby does not live in Buffalo.
FSogol (1000+ posts) Wed Jul-29-09 11:16 AM
Response to Original message
20. Novel idea? This was big city standard operating procedure before WWII
The police would put alcoholics, the homeless and prostitutes on the bus out of town with a few bucks in their pocket.
Okay, now, if you use two words that are synonymous, it's redundance. What do you call it when you use three synonymous words?
Regardless what you call it, I'll bet that was one hell of a bus ride.
