NEW YORK (AP) — New York City is buying one-way plane tickets for homeless families to leave the city.

It's part of a Bloomberg administration program to keep the homeless out of the expensive shelter system, which costs $36,000 a year per family. More than 550 families have left the city since 2007. All it takes is for a relative to agree to take them in.

The city employs a travel agency for domestic travel and the Department of Homeless Services handles international travel.

City officials say there are no limits on where a family can be sent and families can reject the offer.

Families have been sent to 24 states and five continents, mostly to Puerto Rico, Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas.

City officials say none of the relocated families have returned to city shelters.

What's your view?

Ah let's see they get someone to agree, get the money, take a vacation and then set up homeless in another city or country. Sounds to me it's paying for a game of musical chairs? Let some other city deal with it instead of dealing with what ever is making them homeless in the first place?

They've gone high-class. Usually, they just get them a bus ticket and ship them out.
Those who have the mental capacity, they fly.

its basically its "were tired of people who have fallen on hard times and have issues so where going to dump them in your lap"


help unemployment? ive been unemployed for about a month what about those people unemployed longer then me?i suppose we need to get rid of the unemployed too huh?

how bout taking the illegals who are driving up the cost of living and health care?with my insurance through cobra it cost my $200 bucks to walk into the e.r!

they dont have to pay a damn thing but ive got to pay an arm and a leg?


BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

That certainly another way of looking at it. Thanks

You're just out of luck. We have a majority, including the head of DHS who says the Illegal stays.
Get ready to fish out more.

How would this help with unemployment? It will reduce the amount of people NYC has collecting unemployment, but increase the new state.

It will save the state of NY money allocated to those expensive shelters, think article said something about $36K per yr per family.

Wish them all luck.

Quick question, what amenities come with these shelters. At $36K per yr per family equals out to $3K a month. What is included with shelter fees???

graff and theft by political cronies

but het........

yeah yeah yeah what do you know???

what is this graff you speak of?? what is het???

Fran, They all will be arriving in style down here this winter!!

nice pic temp

insert tapping foot emoticon here

in the olden days down and out people went to where the work was. The depression had people moving all across the country looking for work. The Dust Bowl days had Okies traveling to California for work



so, it's not mandatory or forced relocation

just a public service

if my family were stuck homeless in NYC I would jump on it

and you thought i don/t pay attention

no stated they were being forced

you behave (Mike Myers voice)

you are an

i ALWAYS behave

i ALWAYS have behaved

i will ALWAYS behave

because i am the BEHAVER

Florida too http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/florida/sfl-homeless-florida-flights-073109-copy,0,4908477.story

A report that New York City officials have been flying their homeless to Florida and elsewhere on one-way tickets is causing an uproar here, but Broward and Palm Beach counties do the same thing.

A New York Times story this week revealed that since 2007, on Mayor Michael Bloomberg's watch, New York has paid for more than 550 families to fly away. About 100 of them were sent to Florida, according to the story.

But not everyone realizes that New York, like Broward and Palm Beach counties, ships out their homeless only if there's a relative willing to care for them at their destination, said Sean Cononie, who runs the Homeless Voice shelter in Hollywood.

He said his phones have been ringing constantly since the story was published Tuesday.

"People are [very upset] at the thought that they are being dumped here," Cononie said Thursday. "I got a guy who called me and offered me $1,000 to send my clients to New York. What people don't know is that our county has been doing the same thing for years."

Since 2000, Broward County's Homeless Services Administration has been sending homeless people on one-way bus trips to out-of-town relatives. A total of 1,627 clients have received the "reunification" services since 2006, according to county records.

In Palm Beach County, the Vickers House in West Palm Beach has paid more than $65,000 for bus tickets and food to send more than 600 people to relatives since 2002, said Rita Clark, executive director of the Homeless Coalition of Palm Beach County.

"It's a viable resource for folks ... to be able to reunite with a support system that can better assist them," Clark said.

Likewise in Broward, officials said they make sure a family member is willing to help.

"We're not sending them to some street corner in some far-off city," said Steve Werthman, who leads Broward's homeless program.

Werthman said bus tickets generally cost $75 to $125 per person. Broward's program runs on an annual budget of about $50,000.

Officials want to create a tracking system to find out how many, if any, return to Florida. However, the homeless program is among the many in Broward jeopardized by budget cuts, Werthman said.

Broward officials say it costs the county about $55 a night to house one person at a shelter. The average stay is 60 days. As of Friday, there were 98 families on a waiting list for a Broward shelter.

In Broward, more than 4,150 people are homeless, according to a county report done in January. In Palm Beach County, a similar report showed 2,147 people are homeless.

Officials at homeless organizations say they haven't noticed an influx of New Yorkers sent here on one-way tickets.

"Obviously, we see a lot of people from New York, but it's mostly people who come here on their own," said Fran Esposito, of the Broward Partnership for the Homeless. "Florida is a big destination for everyone, not just the homeless."

Lorraine Wilby, who runs a street-corner outreach program called TaskForce Fore Ending Homelessness, said most people seeking help are from Southern states such as South Carolina or Georgia.

"Apparently, their homeless programs out there are not very good, so they come here," she said.

Homeless advocates praise reunification programs but say shipping people elsewhere doesn't get to the root of the problem. Many of the homeless are mentally ill or addicts, and family members might not be prepared to cope with their problems.

Officials with the Broward and Palm Beach County programs follow up with family members, but there's little they can do if the person hits the streets again. "I call it the Greyhound therapy," Cononie said. "You put people in a bus and hope the problem goes somewhere else."

Fort Lauderdale Police Officer Sandi Downs, a homeless-outreach officer, shares Cononie's concerns but thinks sending people to be with their families is a positive step.

"Even if the family is dysfunctional, it's still family and oftentimes makes a huge difference," said Downs.