Ticket to ride....

I have really mixed feelings about an article in today's LA Times about the city of Lancaster providing bus tickets for the homeless to get out of town. Sure, on some level it makes sense to provide people an opportunity to return to places where they have the support of family and friends. But is that what's really happening?

The article says little or nothing about mental illness. Time and time again we've seen "ticket to ride" programs fail because people with mental illness have been shunned by traditional support networks: that's why they're HOMELESS TO BEGIN WITH! Shipping them out of town isn't going to solve anything...it's simply a way of saying "we don't want to deal with this."

It reminds me of the 1976 film about German Jewish refugees on board the S.S. St. Louis. The whole voyage was an anti-Jewish propaganda scheme to "prove" to the world that no one wanted the Jews. It feels that way sometimes, with the homeless, and particularly those who have mental illnesses: no one really wants them...they just want them to go away.