NYC to ship homeless out to destination of choice
By
KATIE LESLIE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Some homeless families in New York may be leaving on a midnight plane to Georgia under a program to ease that city’s financial burden in caring for them.
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The Big Apple is offering homeless families a one-way plane ticket out of New York to the destination of their choice, as long as a family member agrees to take them in. The program aims to keep the homeless out of New York’s shelter system, which costs upwards of $36,000 a year per family. More than 550 families who otherwise couldn’t afford to return home have left New York since 2007.
New York City officials said families have been sent to 24 states and five continents so far, mostly to Georgia, Florida, the Carolinas and Puerto Rico.
According to the New York Times, 38 families have relocated to Georgia since the program began, and 100 families have been flown to Florida.
City officials say there are no limits on where a family can be sent and families can reject the offer. Officials said none of the relocated families have returned to city shelters, at least in New York.
Edward Powers, executive director of Traveler’s Aid of Metro Atlanta, said programs like these are as much about uniting families as they are curing the problem of homelessness.
Traveler’s Aid is a social service organization helping families in crisis or transition with housing, food, transportation and counseling.
Powers explained the program is geared toward families who may have fallen on hard times in a new place, but don’t have the money to return home.
“It’s helping people get back to a verifiable support system elsewhere,” he said.
Traveler’s Aid of Metro Atlanta, with funding from Mayor Shirley Franklin’s homeless coalition, has helped more than 11,000 families in this program since late 2003, he said.
Michael Stoops, executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, sharply criticized the New York program.
“Just because you’re homeless, you should not be kicked out of a city,” he said. “It’s morally wrong and it’s probably unconstitutional.”
Stoops said despite the requirement that a person’s family must agree to take them in, some homeless families could provide the name of a friend or relative, only to end up in a shelter in the new city.
“If they are homeless in New York, you don’t want them to be homeless in Atlanta,” he said. “It doesn’t solve the problem...I think it’s an outrage. It’s just not right.”
Powers said that after a move, Traveler’s Aid follows-up with a family the next day, one month and then six months later, he said.
“And overwhelmingly, people are where they intended to be,” he said. ”It’s cost-effective. It’s humane. And it’s the lynchpin of the solutions to the problem of homelessness in our community.”
The Coalition for the Homeless, a New York-based advocacy and service organization, defends the program as a common sense approach to helping families in need.
“In the face of record family homelessness, even in the rare case where it involves international travel, helping a homeless family with travel expenses to connect to permanent housing with a family member, friend or loved is a more common sense and cost effective solution than keeping them in shelter,” said executive director Mary Brosnahan in a statement Wednesday. “This was the idea behind Traveler’s Aid when it was founded more than 150 years ago and an approach that has been employed by New York City and other major metropolitan areas for decades.”
CFTH spokesman Patrick Markee adds that the program isn’t designed to remove, for cosmetic purposes, the folks found sleeping on the streets. Rather, it’s geared toward families who otherwise can’t afford to return home.
-- The Associated Press contributed to this report.
NYC Offers Homeless One Way Travel
This is a weird way to deal with a homeless problem. Comments?
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Originally Posted by Phier
