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Friday, December 22nd, 2017

Bussed out: How America moves its homeless

Author:     Outside in America Research Team
Source:     The Guardian (U.K.)
Publication Date:     22 December 2017 (used)
 Link: Bussed out: How America moves its homeless
Stephan:   First of all, as you read this, realize that it was printed in the Guardian in the U.K., and is now being read throughout the world. This is what America looks like now. Second, realize that if you live in America and you are poor and homeless, dogs are treated better than you. Americans with money on the whole don't care about the poor, don't want them around, and are unwilling to spend money to help or support government policies that do. There are exceptions of course, I know a number of groups, institutions, and individuals who help. They are wonderful isolated epi-phenomena in support of wellbeing. But the trend is the trend and one needs to learn to distinguish between an isolated program and a trend. We have transformed America from a community based everyone pulls together to an every person for themselves culture, and no one, no government can change that. Only we ourselves. Where do you stand?

Marleen Schiessl and her daughter Tiffany Schiessl in Lehigh Acres, Florida.

Quinn Raber arrived at a San Francisco bus station lugging a canvas bag containing all of his belongings: jeans, socks, underwear, pajamas. It was 1pm on a typically overcast day in August.

An unassuming 27-year-old, Raber seemed worn down: his skin was sun-reddened, he was unshaven, and a hat was pulled over his ruffled blond hair. After showing the driver a one-way ticket purchased for him by the city of San Francisco, he climbed the steps of the Greyhound bus.

Cities have been offering homeless people free bus tickets to relocate elsewhere for at least three decades. In recent years, homeless relocation programs have become more common, sprouting up in new cities across the country and costing the public millions of dollars.

But until now there has never been a systematic, nationwide assessment of the consequences. Where are these people being moved to? What impact are these programs having on the cities that send and the cities that receive them? And […]

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