In abstract
Many California cities supply their homeless residents one-way bus tickets to different locations.
Mayor London Breed, outgoing mayor of San Francisco, made waves just lately with a significant coverage shift: Earlier than offering a shelter mattress or every other companies, metropolis staff should first supply each homeless particular person they encounter a bus or prepare ticket to elsewhere.
However whereas San Francisco has gotten an outsized quantity of consideration for placing its busing program on the forefront of its homelessness technique, different California cities and nonprofits proceed to quietly ship small numbers of unhoused individuals all around the nation. A minimum of one new program is ready to launch early subsequent yr.
For an unhoused one who desires to maneuver in with household in one other metropolis or state, or who acquired caught someplace after a job or housing prospect fell by way of and desires assist getting house, some of these applications could be a gamechanger. However some activists fear they can be utilized coercively to maneuver unhoused individuals out of sight as a substitute of serving to them. And as soon as somebody is bused away, it’s laborious to inform what occurs to them — whether or not they efficiently reunite with household, or grow to be homeless on one other metropolis’s sidewalks.
“In general, the ability to travel back to a place where you have a home is really important and can be a lifesaving service, in fact, and can help to reunite families,” mentioned Niki Jones, govt director of the Sacramento Regional Coalition to Finish Homelessness. “When done in good faith, it can be an important and powerful intervention.”
Many applications do some homework earlier than sending their shoppers off on a bus, however the quantity of effort they put in varies. One nonprofit serving homeless younger individuals in Los Angeles has a therapist name the shopper’s household within the vacation spot metropolis, to verify the shopper goes right into a protected, welcoming setting. One in every of San Francisco’s relocation applications requires the shopper solely to have a obscure connection to their vacation spot metropolis.
These applications are garnering consideration at a time when metropolis leaders are dealing with stress from all sides, together with from Gov. Gavin Newsomto do away with homeless encampments, however lack the assets to present everybody a house or shelter mattress. Shopping for somebody a one-way ticket out of city is a less expensive various. However the quantity of people that can profit from these applications tends to be small. Information from all through California constantly exhibits that the majority people who find themselves homeless are from the county they’re in. And homelessness, habit and different traumas have marred many individuals’s relationships, leaving them with nobody to assist them in one other metropolis.
San Francisco gives bus tickets earlier than shelter
Shortly after starting an aggressive crackdown on tent encampments in San Francisco, Mayor Breed ordered all metropolis companies to “offer and incentivize” the town’s busing program earlier than different companies. Those that decline any assist could also be prone to being arrested for illegally tenting in a public place.
Offering free bus tickets to unhoused individuals is nothing new in San Francisco, which has been providing some type of this program for about 20 years, mentioned Emily Cohen, deputy director of communications and legislative affairs for the town’s Division of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. However utilization declined through the COVID-19 pandemic, when journey was restricted, and it didn’t decide again up, she mentioned. The mayor’s directive was meant to repair that, she mentioned.
The elevated emphasis on busing additionally comes because the demographics of San Francisco’s homeless inhabitants are shifting. This yr, 41% of the individuals surveyed in San Francisco’s time limit depend reported they have been dwelling in one other metropolis or state once they misplaced their housing. That’s up from 29% two years in the past.
“There are definitely an increasing number of people who are experiencing homelessness in San Francisco who aren’t originally from San Francisco,” Cohen mentioned.
San Francisco gives three applications to assist unhoused individuals relocate outdoors of the town. Journey House, launched in September 2023, has the bottom barrier to entry. Whereas different applications require shoppers to work with a case supervisor on an in depth plan to seek out and maintain onto housing once they arrive of their new metropolis, Journey House requires solely that somebody be wholesome sufficient to journey and show they’ve some connection to their vacation spot metropolis. That proof could possibly be a telephone name to a buddy or relative within the metropolis, a receipt displaying the shopper as soon as acquired meals stamps there, or an ID with an handle in that metropolis. Shoppers don’t must show they’ve housing within the vacation spot metropolis, and the entire course of, from consumption to sitting on a bus, can take a day or two.
Since July 2022, San Francisco has relocated a complete of 1,039 unhoused shoppers by way of Journey House and different applications, in line with metropolis knowledge.
The variety of shoppers relocated by way of Journey House spiked in August of this yr (the month Breed issued her order) — 25 individuals have been moved, up from 9 the month earlier than. Town relocated one other 32 individuals by way of different applications. That very same month, the town positioned 120 individuals from encampments into shelters, and one other 429 individuals on the road declined assist, in line with the town.
“In general, the ability to travel back to a place where you have a home is really important and can be a lifesaving service, in fact, and can help to reunite families.”
Niki Jones, govt director, Sacramento Regional Coalition to Finish Homelessness
Whereas Lukas Illa, a human rights organizer with the San Francisco-based Coalition on Homelessness, helps applications that assist unhoused individuals who need to relocate, he’s skeptical of Journey House. The selection to go away San Francisco must be the unhoused particular person’s to freely make, he mentioned. And he says that’s not the case when police, who’ve the ability to quote and arrest individuals, supply bus tickets as a primary resort.
“Journey Home needs to be so deliberate and to really center the agency and the autonomy of the person it is offered to, and not used as a cudgel to threaten arrest or jail time,” Illa mentioned.
Cohen mentioned nobody is being compelled to go away San Francisco.
“The intention is to facilitate connections with loved ones and home communities, if that is a safe and healthy option for you,” she mentioned. “But no one is required to take that option.”
Different cities that use homeless busing applications
San Jose has budgeted $200,000 to launch a relocation program known as Homeward Sure, which is anticipated to begin in February. That cash can go towards a shopper’s bus or airplane ticket, or to assist with utility payments or different bills for the buddy or member of the family taking them in. Town will be sure that shoppers have buddies or household to assist them of their vacation spot metropolis, however workers are nonetheless ironing out the specifics, mentioned Tasha Dean, spokesperson for Mayor Matt Mahan.
“Reconnecting people living on the streets with family members or loved ones who want to care for them is just common sense,” Mahan mentioned in a press release. “It’s the least expensive, most impactful program we could launch.”
Sacramento County additionally gives these companies, however they aren’t extensively used, mentioned county spokesperson Janna Haynes. Through the 2022-23 fiscal yr, 17 individuals used the county’s Return to Residency Program to go away the county. That program has since dissolved, and now social staff in numerous county applications supply the service on a case-by-case foundation.
Town of Los Angeles doesn’t run a busing program, however a number of nonprofits inside the metropolis supply the service. PATH helped 313 shoppers reunite with household within the final fiscal yr, and a little bit greater than half of these shoppers left LA County.
A Protected Place for Youth additionally helps younger individuals reunite with family and friends outdoors LA.
Cities and nonprofits in different states additionally run busing applications — and typically ship individuals to California. Haven for Hope, which operates a big homeless shelter and repair heart in San Antonio, Texas, gave about 60 individuals one-way bus tickets out of the town final yr, mentioned Alberto Rodriguez, vice chairman of operations. Earlier than they ship a shopper on their manner, Haven for Hope calls the household or buddy they’re going to stay with and confirms the shopper can keep there, Rodriguez mentioned.
“We’re never just going to send someone back to homelessness in another city or another state, in the same way we don’t want other cities or other states to send their homeless clients to San Antonio without connecting with us,” he mentioned.
The place do people who find themselves bused find yourself?
Of the 151 individuals relocated from San Francisco since August, at the least 29 went to different cities inside California. A minimum of one other 12 went to Texas, six went to Florida and 7 went to Georgia. Due to an information processing error, the town couldn’t present info on the place 34 individuals went.
It’s more durable to inform what occurs to these individuals as soon as they attain their vacation spot.
San Francisco solely just lately began requiring workers to verify in with shoppers 90 days after they go away, however workers typically can’t come up with them of their new metropolis, Cohen mentioned. Town didn’t present knowledge on the outcomes of these 90-day calls, which began in July, in time for publication.
About 15% of people that left San Francisco by way of the Division of Homelessness and Supportive Housing’s relocation program between July 2022 and July 2023 ended up again in San Francisco, utilizing the town’s homeless companies, inside a yr.
Cohen known as that an 85% “success rate,” even supposing regardless that somebody didn’t return to San Francisco, they may have ended up homeless of their new metropolis.
“That is fantastic,” Cohen mentioned, “in terms of the amount of investment for the outcome we are able to achieve.”
