Slog

News & Arts

Line Out

Music & the City
at Night

« Also Reading Tonight | The Flowers and Flat Screens Are Pr… »

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Economy Framing

Posted by Erica C. Barnett on Thu, Apr 2, 2009 at 3:43 PM

The LA Times ran a story three days ago (reprinted in today's Seattle Times) about a church-run program in Lancaster, California that gives homeless people a one-way bus ticket out of town. The story includes a few favorable quotes from homeless people who took bus tickets from the program, but makes it pretty clear that the real goal of the program is to make homeless folks someone else's problem. (Lancaster's mayor has even donated $10,000 to the program, saying the city has enough of its "own" homeless without having to deal with those from other cities). The headline the LA Times chose is descriptive but neutral: "Homeless in Lancaster get free tickets to go away."

So what headline did the Seattle Times go with? "To reduce homelessness, nonprofit offers free 1-way bus ticket out of town." It's a subtle difference, but important: As even some who support the program acknowledge, it's more likely to shift the burden of homelessness elsewhere than reduce it, because most homeless people don't have strong family support systems or good job prospects in other cities. (People who have those things are less likely to be homeless) The couple featured in the story, for example, just moved to California from Las Vegas last month, hoping job prospects would be better there. Mobility isn't their problem; getting jobs is. Now, they're taking a one-way trip to Denver, where one of them has a relative. Their goal? To get "a fresh start." Again.

Comments (25) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment

Hey man, c'n ya spare me $3.42? I'm just shy of havin enough to buy a bus tick't...

Posted by that drunk guy near the bus station on April 2, 2009 at 3:46 PM

The local county psych hospital used to get patients found on the streets, who had been sent here from somewhere else with a "free" bus ticket.

The staff called it Greyhound Therapy.

Posted by Bill C. Rider on April 2, 2009 at 3:54 PM

"Califor-nya! Is good to the homeless!
Califor-nya-nya,
Is good to the hooomleeeessss..."

-Cartman (singing Tupac's "California Love") while ridding Colorado of homeless people by busing them to California

Posted by Life imitates Art on April 2, 2009 at 3:56 PM

Portland used to ship their homeless up to Seattle the same way.

Posted by Collin on April 2, 2009 at 3:59 PM

Hawaii, on the other hand, looks at this sort of program with envy.

They're still trying to figure out what happened to the last several outbound buses.

Posted by Lenny on April 2, 2009 at 3:59 PM

Every city has an urban legend like @4's. They're telling it now in Ballard.

While the program does raise some questions, your example is bad. The family in the story not only has a relative in Denver; that relative has agreed to take them in. So sending them there is in fact reducing homelessness, by two. And the family was grateful, because there was nothing for them in Lancaster, but they lacked resources to go where they had a place.

Posted by Fnarf on April 2, 2009 at 4:03 PM

It sounds like that program can help that couple. They're moving on after finding out that Lancaster doesn't have any jobs. Meanwhile, programs like this are completely worthless for those who are chronically homeless, where simply providing them with jobs isn't going to come close to solving their problems.

Posted by keshmeshi on April 2, 2009 at 4:06 PM

If we did this in Seattle, the rest of King County would suddenly have tons of homeless people.

Posted by Will in Seattle on April 2, 2009 at 4:10 PM

Now this is a "free ride zone" that I could get behind.

Posted by downtown clown on April 2, 2009 at 4:10 PM

in the sum of the economic shambles of the moment - it is nothing

zzzzzz

(and as noted above, not uncommon at all)

Erica, NEWS, please.

Posted by Vampire on April 2, 2009 at 4:28 PM

The framing of the stories between the two cities, as pointed out by ECB, shows culturual differences. Whether we know it or not, we are influenced by the measures our city has taken to take care of its homeless population. Apathy versus compassion? Conservative/progessive?

The people in the story have strong ties elsewhere. I wonder if a study of the larger homeless population would prove otherwise. The article in yesterday's PI.com about the study and the house on Eastlake for chronic alcoholics run by DESC touches on this. They have a link to the study which raises general questions about the homeless population.

Posted by CommonKnowledge on April 2, 2009 at 4:37 PM

um, i'm pretty sure this church group stole their idea from a south park episode....yup, positive.

Posted by thislemonadetastesterrible on April 2, 2009 at 4:40 PM

Check out the positive results of Seattle homeless program results in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA):
http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abs…

Posted by otter on April 2, 2009 at 4:40 PM

Lancaster was the last place I lived in cali. I left in 1981, it was a shithole, and I can't believe that anyone would want to move there.

Posted by wisepunk on April 2, 2009 at 4:41 PM

San Francisco started doing this in 2005. Only about 10-30 people a year used it.

Posted by Dougsf on April 2, 2009 at 5:02 PM

Misleading headline from the SeaTimes. Remember their hyped headlines during snow? About the I-5 closure? Of the shooting of the Jewish center in Belltown?

Posted by seatimes is lame on April 2, 2009 at 5:03 PM

Thanks for linking that, otter.

Posted by CommonKnowledge on April 2, 2009 at 5:08 PM

"The story includes a few favorable quotes from homeless people who took bus tickets from the program, but makes it pretty clear that the real goal of the program is to make homeless folks someone else's problem."

Oh really, Erica? It wasn't "clear" to me. To me it was clear that this program enables homeless people to go where they have job prospect or where they have relatives who will take them in. Sometimes when things aren't working out in one city, a move might be in order. As someone who moved to Seattle from Texas, a drastically different place, you should be able to relate to that.

Posted by CynicalSucker on April 2, 2009 at 5:35 PM

knowing stuff (like how to use language) isn't what the seattle times is good at

Posted by aff on April 2, 2009 at 5:42 PM

All I can think of is that family in The Grapes of Wrath.

Posted by RainMan on April 2, 2009 at 5:51 PM

You can buy a house in Cincinnati for $1000. This is the greatest idea since sliced bread. The homeless don't have a chance here in ripoff Seattle.

Posted by Go East Old Fart! on April 2, 2009 at 7:15 PM

This was done by Seattle in the late 80s or early 90s. Homeless were sent to San Francisco...

Posted by Shawn Fassett on April 2, 2009 at 8:16 PM

I'd rather see us put our $$$ into shipping out wine thieving 'journalists' any day.

Posted by it's over ecb on April 2, 2009 at 9:42 PM

lets ship the hobos to mexico

Posted by bums have aids on April 2, 2009 at 11:55 PM

@12

It totally is the South Park Episode! The ended up sending the South Park homeless to California and now they are sending in a big diaspora somewhere else.

Posted by Clearlyhere on April 3, 2009 at 6:36 AM