San Francisco Bused 55 Homeless People Out Since August 1st

San Francisco City Officials unveiled data on Monday showing that 55 homeless people have been moved out of the city since August 1st under the Journey Home busing program, with the program ramping up services following Mayor London Breed’s August 1st executive order announcement.

San Francisco’s original homeless busing program, Homeward Bound, ran between 2005 and 2013 under the guidance of then San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. Over 10,000 homeless were sent out of the city under the program, with only one in eight getting back. And, as the Globe noted earlier this week, many charities in and around the city still offer bus tickets for homeless people in the city wanting to get out, with some being sent as far away as Florida.

However, San Francisco never revisited Homeward Bound despite the homeless population growing exponentially and making shelter spots hard to come by. In September of last year, a new busing program, Journey Home, began on a small-scale soft launch. Between then and August 2nd, the city only paid for 92 tickets out of San Francisco. However, Mayor London Breed announced last week that the bus program would be returning to the city on a larger scale, as part of her sweeping reforms to tackle homelessness in the city and remove encampments. According to Mayor Breed, Journey Home would “prioritize relocation support and services.” All homeless people in the city will be offered a bus ride before offering shelter and housing, essentially removing the “housing first” policy that has prevailed.

Preliminary data and busing statistics before the executive order found that the top destination was other cities in California, followed by the neighboring state of Oregon. However, Journey Home received more and more criticism throughout August and September, as many counties began seeing it as San Francisco dumping their problems on them. Some Los Angeles County homeless services said that the growing numbers would only strain their services. Meanwhile, in Humboldt County, the County’s own homeless busing program, TAP, came in direct confrontation with San Francisco’s program as each had the other’s county as one of their top destinations, essentially trading homeless people.

Journey Home in Mid-September

Now a month and a half into San Francisco pushing more people into the Journey Home program, the city gave their newest statistics: 55 homeless people were relocated out of the city since August 1st. However, statistics are a bit loose, as only 36 homeless people were brought up on public data showing where they were sent. Despite this, partial data shows a clear pattern. 13 of the 36 went elsewhere in California, with the top locations being Sacramento County, Los Angeles County, San Joaquin County, and Humboldt County. Statewise, the other 23 went to Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, and Texas.

While Journey Home has been growing, it hasn’t been by all too much. While the August figures were significantly higher than June busing number, the month of May actually had more bused out, before Breed’s executive order. But, with colder months now approaching and warmer areas like SoCal, Arizona, Texas, and Florida being fair game for busing, as well as many homeless people wanting to move home close to family before Christmas, Journey Home may see a bump up to numbers not seen since the old Homeward Bound program during it’s heyday.

“Our busing program always has an influx of warmer weather locations being wanted during the winter,” said Jack, who helps run a private homeless charity in the Bay Area, to the Globe on Monday. “Heck, a few even proved they were from Hawaii and we flew them out there. And yeah, holiday season, and Thanksgiving, we get homeless people who decide to move back to go to family. The call of family is stronger during Thanksgiving and the December holidays.

“In terms of the upcoming Mayoral election, these just aren’t the numbers that Breed can declare a success yet. Next month this time, if it shows that it has doubled or so, broke 100, then she can claim it. That it is working. But right now? Still very low.”

More Journey Home figures are expected next month.