Planes, trains and homeless

By John Mohan

A friend told me about a radio report circulating in Winnipeg last week about the City of New York giving free airline tickets to homeless people to get them out of town just to cut down on welfare costs.

It sounds like NYC was simply dumping their homelessness problem on everywhere else.

Ready to be outraged, my friend researched the story a little more, finding a New York Times article which gave a more humane explanation than what he first thought.

It turns out that while it's true it's a cost saving measure for the Big Apple to spend a few hundred or few thousand dollars to give one way plane or bus tickets to the homeless, there are conditions and compassion involved. Often people have wandered to New York searching for a better life only to find themselves in homeless shelters and nowhere to turn. And at the same time, are costing the city tens of thousands of dollars per year in support service costs.

As an alternative, shelter intake workers are asking people if there are other options. Is there someone, somewhere else that would help you? In essence, "Would you go home or live with family if you could, no matter where they lived; if we helped you get there?"

Upon confirmation of people at the desired destination willing to assist the distressed individuals, arrangements are made, tickets issued (nationally and even internationally) -- courtesy of New York City. Emergency service costs are reduced and people are reconnected to homes and family with a fighting chance to start over and get out of shelter living which does no one any good long term. Overall, it seems like a win-win.

To a lesser degree, this happens in Winnipeg, too. People from across Canada and countries beyond end up at the doors of Winnipeg's emergency shelters not wanting to be there, yet not knowing how or if they can go home. One such person was Steve from Quebec. He suffered from a mental illness and had to be handled carefully. Usually amicable, you could see him going through public ashtrays to find discarded, half-smoked cigarettes. They were like gold to Steve.

Homesick

But on the other side of his personality, when not taking medications, he could be volatile if challenged.

He once brought on the wrath of the Winnipeg Police when he hit an off-duty policeman with a coffee cup during a heated argument.

Some time later during another incarceration he was seen by a doctor who ensured Steve was receiving his meds. Steve began to stabilize and during a conversation with Siloam Mission's shelter director Wayne Smith disclosed he wanted to go home to Quebec.

Wayne helped make the connections with provincial welfare workers and Steve got a bus pass and some spending money to go home. We haven't seen him in two years.

Admittedly there are lingering questions. How is Steve doing? Is he now just the problem of the Province of Quebec?

A lonely homeless man who survived on Winnipeg streets just wanted to go home and our province and a non-profit organization partnered to help that happen.

But going home is not always an option. That's the issue that usually starts homelessness.

-- John Mohan is the CEO of Siloam Mission.

wpgsun.letters@sunmedia.ca

SUN Article Link:

http://www.winnipegsun.com/news/columnists/john_mohan/2009/08/05/10364821-sun.html