Flashback: 14 Years Ago Gavin Newsom Initiated Program to Give Homeless People Bus Tickets to Leave San Francisco

Democrats have gone head-bangingly insane over Ron DeSantis’ brilliant and compassionate plan to relocate undocumented migrants to locations yearning to help them breathe free.

It turns out that the “We believe that no human being is illegal” crowd also believes that these non-illegal human beings should sleep under bridges in El Paso rather than in hotel rooms in Martha’s Vineyard. As soon as they showed up, a state of emergency was called and the military mobilized to round up the inconvenient brown people. They were shipped off to a military base where no doubt AOC will be photographed crying for their plight.

You would think they would rally around him for his offering free transport to sanctuaries for migrants, but apparently they don’t see it quite like I do. DeSantis has been compared to Adolf Eichman, and Gavin Newsom has called on the Justice Department to investigate him for “human trafficking.”

Newsom thinks he can go toe to toe with DeSantis in political warfare, but he is proving himself to be more Gomer Pyle than Navy Seal. Surprise, surprise. surprise!

Newsom thought he dropped a political bomb on DeSantis with his human trafficking attack–and to be sure, it resonated with the radical Left base to whom he is appealing. They had been floundering around looking for an angle that hurt DeSantis but allowed them to cry crocodile tears of compassion for the poor illegal aliens. Human trafficking accusations seem perfect.

But oops, it turns out that if the comparison is apt, Newsom engaged in a bit of human trafficking while Mayor of San Francisco. He instituted a program that shipped homeless San Franciscans around the country to get them out of the city. He didn’t rent buses or charter flights, as evil DeSantis and Abbot did; he compassionately bought bus tickets before giving homeless folk a swift kick in the butt.

Homeward Bound was a Newsom initiative that was discontinued just this year in San Francisco, although it appears to have been folded into other programs. It’s goal is supposedly to help people get out of homelessness by reconnecting them with families and friends somewhere far, far away from the city. It sometimes works, but just as often just dumps the homeless elsewhere.

The data highlight a conundrum for San Francisco: As rents rise and the homeless population swells, it’s much cheaper to give someone a bus ticket rather than try to house them here. But when they leave, how responsible is the city for making sure they find stability at the other end of their journey?

In the city’s biennial homeless count, San Francisco officials categorize all Homeward Bound clients as having “exited homelessness,” regardless of whether they did. City officials — including the mayor and head of the homelessness department — also often tout Homeward Bound as a success on par with other programs that place people into housing, such as permanent supportive housing and rental assistance.

From 2013 to 2018, the city says it helped 11,031 people “exit homelessness,” according to the city data. A little more than half of those people were connected with permanent supportive housing or Rapid Re-Housing, a federal rental assistance program.

The rest boarded a Greyhound bus out of the city.

By any serious measure, Homeward Bound has been a total failure. Like any Gavin Newsom project it appears to be a new, shiny, progressive and compassionate program that promises sunshine, daisies, and children running free in meadows. But the reality is that it is all show and no dough.

In the 14 years since the city created the Homeward Bound program under then-Mayor Gavin Newsom, San Francisco’s homeless crisis has indisputably worsened. San Francisco’s homeless population grew by an estimated 17% over the past two years, despite the city building supportive housing and spending more than $285 million annually on the Department of Homelessness. About $1.2 million of that funding is spent on Homeward Bound each year.

The average bus ticket and $10 per diem given to someone for the journey costs the city about $270 per person — far less than what it would cost to shelter or house them. A bed at a Navigation Center costs the city about $100 a night.

Clearly this program isn’t about helping homeless folks. It’s about assuaging the consciences of the Lefties who feel bad about stepping over sleeping addicts and stepping around piles of human excrement. It harshes their buzz, man. I stepped in poop while drinking my latte!

Newsom isn’t alone in shipping their homeless US citizens somewhere else. Mayor Bill de Blasio did exactly the same thing more recently.

The New York Post had the story from a couple of years ago:

New York City generously shares its homeless crisis with every corner of America.

From the tropical shores of Honolulu and Puerto Rico, to the badlands of Utah and backwaters of Louisiana, the Big Apple has sent local homeless families to 373 cities across the country with a full year of rent in their pockets as part of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s “Special One-Time Assistance Program.” Usually, the receiving city knows nothing about it.

Short version: if a Republican does it then he is a Nazi; if a Democrat does it then we must marvel at his compassion.

Hey…de Blasio has given me an idea that de Santis should consider: charter a flight for illegals to enjoy the hospitality of the Lefties in Maui. I bet they would love to host some more visitors, because diversity is our strength. And indisputably sleeping rough in Maui would be better than under a bridge in El Paso.

Let’s find out if Leftists think helping people to another of the world’s great vacation spots is akin to sending them to a concentration camp.

UPDATE: a couple of grammatical errors were fixed and a link I had intended to include was added.


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