Outside Safe: How Los Angeles Could Create Their Own Homeless Busing Program

Los Angeles has never had an official homeless busing program, one of which gives a homeless person a free one-way bus ticket to the city of their choice in the continental United States, often going back to where family or more support is.

Other major cities in the state have done it. In the 1980’s, San Diego routinely had “Greyhound therapy” where homeless people in the city were given tickets out of San Diego. And then there was San Francisco’s Homeward Bound program that ran between 2005 and 2013 under the guidance of then San Francisco Mayor Newsom. Over 10,000 homeless were sent out of the city under the program, with only one in eight getting back. And busing homeless people out still lives on in some charities as well.

In the past few weeks, San Francisco greatly expanded their “Journey Home” program, which is pretty much Homeward Bound but with a few more checks in the system to make sure they have support wherever they are going. Preliminary reports on the soft launch of it since last year found that the number one destination was actually not out of state, but Los Angeles, bringing even more burdens to the city.

With Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’ homeless measures, like Inside Safe, generally failing throughout the city and Los Angeles County officials trying to fight back against Governor Gavin Newsom’s new orders to remove encampments across the state, something more needs to be done. L.A. has a doozy of national and international events in the next few years, like the NBA All-Star Game and FIFA World Cup in 2026, the Super Bowl in 2027, and the Olympics in 2028. Besides public transportation, the homeless issue is the biggest one that needs to be fixed and fixed fast. So why not bussing?

Like San Francisco and other cities, it is being done at the private level at a small-scale.

A hypothetical L.A. bussing program

“There’s a few charities that do give bus tickets to homeless people wanting to leave Los Angeles,” explained Cristobal Reynoso, who helps run a homeless charity in Los Angeles, to the Globe on Monday. “We do, but only if there is no other real option. Las Vegas is the main place people want to go out of state. Surprisingly, El Paso is another big draw. Within California, it’s the Bay Area. Whatever city there has the best Greyhound deal when we book. But we also offer a pre-loaded Clipper card as well.

“We also did pay for a few Hawaii tickets for Hawaiians wanting to get back there, but only if they could prove they were from there and only when there was a discount ticket.

“San Francisco had a lot of success with their programs, and L.A. really needs to consider this. We just can’t keep being the dumping ground for the nations homeless. Every city needs to take care of this problem. With bussing, we give them dignity back to places where they have more support and family. That’s how you have to look at this issue.”

So, why not busing from L.A.? Why can’t Bass and friends create a busing program, give it a snappy title, and offer tickets? They can even take a page from Florida and Texas state programs with illegal immigrants, identify the cities they most likely would want to go to, and bring them there where they would have more support. Private busing programs, as well as San Francisco’s program, has identified cities and states most popular with homeless people in California. Oregon, Texas, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, and Florida for starters.

One reason is the age-old hang-up: money. Funding such a program would take away homeless funds already being directed towards housing and shelter. That would hurt Inside safe and other programs, and why take away money from programs that are flatlining?

But the big reason is optics. A lot of eyes are on L.A., and advocates and select lawmakers would kick up a storm if L.A. manages to get such a program off the ground.

“It’s why some donors actually stopped giving and others began donating more,” added Reynoso. “Homeless busing divides people. They think of it as sending the problem to someone else, even though, if you do it right, you are actually giving them a better chance. Plus, more people out, the more shelter and housing space is available, and the number of jobs opens up too.

“L.A. is looking for everything to reduce the number of homeless people. Shelters are feeling the pinch. Busing shouldn’t be the end all solution, but it can definitely help alleviate the problem a bit, and keep encampments from coming back to some degree. It’s a better plan than Inside Safe.”

As of Monday, San Francisco’s busing program is continuing to ramp up.