It sounds scary, but a number of places are beginning to use a new tactic to deal with homeless populations, namely relocation. An increasing number of city governments try their hand at relocating destitute people, though it's not quite what it seems. Source for this article: bad non-payday credit loans
Sending all the destitute somewhere else
The N.D. boom has brought on many towns to experience housing shortages, according to CNN. One town, Williston, is even deporting the homeless for this reason, though it is not forced like you might think.
Instead, people are moving to Williston to try to find work, which is plentiful with an unemployment rate of less than 1 percent. They find, though, that housing is remarkably costly. Since so many people are moving there, prices have shot through the roof. As a result, people are going broke and homeless as a result of rent being, as Jimmy McMillan put it, too damn high.
With many donations, the Salvation Army of Williston is providing plane, train, or bus fare to get home. They can even get fuel cards. This is supposed to help relocate some homeless people.
The figures
The Salvation Army of Williston is relocating destitute people at the rate of about 20 per month. The people that get assistance are not being forced out; they ask for help to leave. Many have to solicit the community for funds to leave for home as the fuel vouchers are not often enough at a maximum of $80.
New York City also had a comparable policy that was started in 2009 to get rid of destitute people, according to the Guardian. New York funded trips to France, south Africa, Brazil, and all over the country. Destitute recipients just had to prove that they had a place to stay once they received to the destination city.
The reason New York opted for that strategy is it saves money. Plane tickets can cost a few thousand dollars. However, it costs upward of $36,000 per year to keep a family in a city-run shelter. Between 2007 and Sept. 2009, 550 families had been given free fare out of town.
Slowly catching on
The problem of homelessness is not solved through this. It is just relocated, which critics have made very clear. Still, places keep doing it.
The Seattle Times points out that Atlanta offered one way tickets out of town for destitute people before the 1996 Olympic games were held. Time Magazine reported that in 1999, San Francisco also offered one way tickets out of town.
In 2009, Los Angeles Suburb Lancaster had a Grace Resource Center that offered free tickets out of town, according to the LA Times. A comparable deal was offered in Fort Lauderdale, according to NBC News, and St. Petersburg offered that kind of deal in 2011, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
In 2010, the Sumner Homeless Mens Shelter in HI was actually attempting to get homeless people to come to the shelter, according to Gawker.
Sources
CNN
The Guardian
Seattle Times
Sending all the destitute somewhere else
The N.D. boom has brought on many towns to experience housing shortages, according to CNN. One town, Williston, is even deporting the homeless for this reason, though it is not forced like you might think.
Instead, people are moving to Williston to try to find work, which is plentiful with an unemployment rate of less than 1 percent. They find, though, that housing is remarkably costly. Since so many people are moving there, prices have shot through the roof. As a result, people are going broke and homeless as a result of rent being, as Jimmy McMillan put it, too damn high.
With many donations, the Salvation Army of Williston is providing plane, train, or bus fare to get home. They can even get fuel cards. This is supposed to help relocate some homeless people.
The figures
The Salvation Army of Williston is relocating destitute people at the rate of about 20 per month. The people that get assistance are not being forced out; they ask for help to leave. Many have to solicit the community for funds to leave for home as the fuel vouchers are not often enough at a maximum of $80.
New York City also had a comparable policy that was started in 2009 to get rid of destitute people, according to the Guardian. New York funded trips to France, south Africa, Brazil, and all over the country. Destitute recipients just had to prove that they had a place to stay once they received to the destination city.
The reason New York opted for that strategy is it saves money. Plane tickets can cost a few thousand dollars. However, it costs upward of $36,000 per year to keep a family in a city-run shelter. Between 2007 and Sept. 2009, 550 families had been given free fare out of town.
Slowly catching on
The problem of homelessness is not solved through this. It is just relocated, which critics have made very clear. Still, places keep doing it.
The Seattle Times points out that Atlanta offered one way tickets out of town for destitute people before the 1996 Olympic games were held. Time Magazine reported that in 1999, San Francisco also offered one way tickets out of town.
In 2009, Los Angeles Suburb Lancaster had a Grace Resource Center that offered free tickets out of town, according to the LA Times. A comparable deal was offered in Fort Lauderdale, according to NBC News, and St. Petersburg offered that kind of deal in 2011, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
In 2010, the Sumner Homeless Mens Shelter in HI was actually attempting to get homeless people to come to the shelter, according to Gawker.
Sources
CNN
The Guardian
Seattle Times