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Statistics on San Francisco’s First Journey Home bus transportation for homeless released – California Globe


Statistics on San Francisco’s First Journey Home bus transportation for homeless released – California Globe

A new report was released Friday about the recipients of San Francisco’s Journey Home bus program, which provides one-way bus passes to homeless people in San Francisco.

San Francisco’s original bus program for the homeless, Homeward Bound, ran between 2005 and 2013 under the leadership of then-San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. The program sent over 10,000 homeless people out of the city, with only one in eight coming back. And as the Globe noted earlier this week, many charities in and around the city are still offering bus tickets for homeless people who want to get out, with some being sent as far away as Florida.

However, San Francisco has never revisited Homeward Bound, even as the homeless population grows exponentially and it becomes increasingly difficult to find a place in a shelter. In September of last year, a new bus program called Journey Home launched on a small scale. Between then and August 2, the city has paid for just 92 tickets out of San Francisco. However, Mayor London Breed announced last week that the bus program would return to the city on a larger scale, as part of her sweeping reforms to address homelessness in the city and eliminate encampments. According to Mayor Breed, Journey Home will “prioritize relocation assistance and services.” All homeless people in the city will be offered a bus ride before being offered shelter and housing, essentially doing away with the previously dominant “housing first” policy.

Given that many homeless people are currently being bused out of San Francisco, the question is: Where will they go?

A new report on Friday revealed where the program’s first 92 recipients went, providing a preview of what the coming exodus of the homeless will look like. Of the 92 people, a total of 25 traveled by bus to other locations in California. The leading out-of-state location was Oregon, with 9 people going there, followed by 6 people going to both Nevada and Texas. The next highest location was Ohio, with 4 people. Other popular states included Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, New Mexico and Tennessee.

The report, prepared by the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing and the Human Services Agency, also found that the most popular locations in California for Journey Home residents were Los Angeles County, Sacramento County and Humboldt County.

Although the sample size of just 92 recipients over a year is not very large, others with similar programs have found that the data fairly accurately reflect where homeless people want to be bused.

“We’ve had a bus program for years, mostly through Greyhound, and it kind of says the same thing,” Jack, who runs a private homeless charity in the Bay Area, told the Globe on Friday. “We measure by city, though. The biggest place is Los Angeles, although that’s probably going to change after all the encampment clearances lately. But outside the state, Las Vegas is the biggest place. Then come Phoenix, Austin, San Antonio, Nashville and Denver. Portland and Seattle used to be big, but now nobody wants to go there. A lot more people have been asking about Houston and Albuquerque in the last few years, too.

“I can’t say it’s because of the jobs that are all leaving or the cost of living. Most people want to go home. San Francisco’s schedule, wow, we’re going to see so many go out now. Texas will probably hate this, as will Arizona. The weather in California is great compared to those places, but things are changing in other areas of California. These 92 are just a preview of what’s going to happen.”

It is currently unknown when the first Journey Home stats will appear after the racial expansion.

Statistics on San Francisco’s First Journey Home bus transportation for homeless released – California Globe

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