Out-of-town homeless families are flooding New York City shelters

[garbon]

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/out-of-town-homeless-families-flooding-new-york-city-shelters-article-1.1125381?localLinksEnabled=false

It's not just tourists and wanna-be starlets flocking to New York these days.

The city has also become a popular new travel destination for the homeless — and taxpayers are now paying to send them back where they came from.

"People see New York as a land of opportunity, a place that's welcoming," said Homeless Services Commissioner Seth Diamond, noting that the city's unique "right to shelter" law affords housing to everyone.

The number of out-of-town families flooding city shelters has jumped by 48% over the past four years, from a total of 1,390 in 2008 to 2,053 in 2011, records show.

More than 40 new families arrive every week from Puerto Rico, Florida and elsewhere — and head straight to packed intake centers where they wait to be placed in shelters.

"It used to be very rare where we'd see people coming directly from the airport," said Vida Chavez-Downes, who heads the city's Bronx intake facility. "But now I see a consistent amount of those people. For some reason, people feel it's the only way."

That includes Naika Rolon, 27, who fled Puerto Rico last winter with three young children to get away from an abusive husband.

"My husband owed people money," she said. "They were coming to our house after he left us. I was afraid."

Rolon heard from a friend about the city's guaranteed shelter policy — practically the only one of its kind in the country — and made her way to a shelter in the Bronx.

Housing a single homeless family costs about $3,000 a month on average — $36,000 annually — and out-of-towners have helped swell the shelter population to an all-time high of 43,040. The budget has grown to $870 million.

In an effort to reign in those costs, the Bloomberg administration has cranked up efforts to ship the carpetbaggers back to where they came from.
Numbers obtained through the Freedom of Information Law show that taxpayers have picked up the one-way fare to send 2,654 singles and families to 24 states and five continents since 2007 — at a cost of roughly $650,000 a year.

That's a small part of the department's overall budget, city officials say, but the numbers seem to be growing — from 268 people exported in 2010 to 459 people last year.

"It's common-sense public policy," said Patrick Markee, senior policy analyst at the Coalition for the Homeless. "Instead of keeping them at a huge expense in our shelter system, why not pay for their transportation to friends and relatives in another state who have someplace for them to stay and maybe a job?"

The city uses a Manhattan-based travel agency, Protravel, to buy the one-way tickets, which most often are for Puerto Rico, Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas, records show.

"I'm excited about leaving," said Vanessa Cruz, 24, who with her 4-year-old son, Izayah, is accepting a one-way ticket to Seattle after two years in a Brooklyn shelter. "I feel like I'll have a better opportunity out there."

Interesting all around. It's like come here, we get you on your feet and then ship you elsewhere.

[crazy canuck]

Give me your tired, your poor/Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free

[DGuller]

Would be funny if those places just shipped them right back.

[Barrister]

At one point in time Alberta would offer to give homeless people a one-way ticket to BC.  BC was not amused.

[derspiess]

At one point in time Alberta would offer to give homeless people a one-way ticket to BC.  BC was not amused.

That's what some midwest towns did to ship their homeless to San Francisco.  Don't remember what SF's reaction was.

[garbon]

At one point in time Alberta would offer to give homeless people a one-way ticket to BC.  BC was not amused.

That's what some midwest towns did to ship their homeless to San Francisco.  Don't remember what SF's reaction was.

Doubt they could have complained considering that SF did something similar with illegal aliens to other cities. Cause a big stir when one of them killed someone in San Diego or something like that.

[Syt]

German welfare was paid for by state budgets (at least in pre-Hartz-IV days). If a needy person moved from one state to another, the new home state got to bill the previous state for a year (or two?).

[Barrister]

The flip side - when I worked in Yukon we'd periodically get calls - so and so is in custody in such and such a place (usually Vancouver), and wanted to know if we wanted to extend our warrant to come and pick them up.

More often than not our answer was "no, we really don't want this person back up here".

In the lead up to the Olympics, when we'd get these calls, BC would offer to ship the person up here at their expense - there own version of trying to ship people out of town.

[Valmy]

That's what some midwest towns did to ship their homeless to San Francisco.  Don't remember what SF's reaction was.

There did seem to be alot of homeless people in SF.  I could not help but think they picked a crap city to be homeless in.  Not only is it cold 365 days a year but the cost of living is astronomical.

[garbon]

That's what some midwest towns did to ship their homeless to San Francisco.  Don't remember what SF's reaction was.

There did seem to be alot of homeless people in SF.  I could not help but think they picked a crap city to be homeless in.  Not only is it cold 365 days a year but the cost of living is astronomical.

SF is a pretty good city to be in year round. Very little temperature fluctuation so if you have some jeans and a sweatshirt, you're mostly golden barring the occasional rainy day.

[Barrister]

That's what some midwest towns did to ship their homeless to San Francisco.  Don't remember what SF's reaction was.

There did seem to be alot of homeless people in SF.  I could not help but think they picked a crap city to be homeless in.  Not only is it cold 365 days a year but the cost of living is astronomical.

You don't freeze to death in the middle of winter, and more of a left-wing political culture probably means more handouts.

I was shocked when I met the Vancouver crew a few years back and Jacob gave some money to a panhandler.  Nobody I know does that.  It just encourages them (and, by the way, some of them make pretty good coin panhandling.  Ah the things you learn doing docket court...)

[garbon]

You don't freeze to death in the middle of winter, and more of a left-wing political culture probably means more handouts.

/assistance in the forms of housing and advocacy groups. New construction was going up all the time for the homeless.

[Ed Anger]

If I was being shipped out, I'd prefer Portland, OR. They have a soft touch on the housing challenged and I can eat shitty donuts from Voodoo donuts that people have tossed in the nearest dumpster.

[Malthus]

That's what some midwest towns did to ship their homeless to San Francisco.  Don't remember what SF's reaction was.

There did seem to be alot of homeless people in SF.  I could not help but think they picked a crap city to be homeless in.  Not only is it cold 365 days a year but the cost of living is astronomical.

You don't freeze to death in the middle of winter, and more of a left-wing political culture probably means more handouts.

I was shocked when I met the Vancouver crew a few years back and Jacob gave some money to a panhandler.  Nobody I know does that.  It just encourages them (and, by the way, some of them make pretty good coin panhandling.  Ah the things you learn doing docket court...)

How can they make good coin, if no-one gives them handouts? 

[Admiral Yi]

There are people Beeb doesn't know?