Bus therapy for the homeless

District Five's David Tornheim doesn't like the idea of giving the homeless bus tickets out of town:

So San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's administration shows its "care" for the homeless by hocking[sic] one-way tickets out of town? Will the tourists also be sent packing, or is there an exception for those with disposable cash? Will Newsom roll out the welcome mat for the homeless from other towns with similar programs, or is Greyhound the long-term housing plan for them? (Letter to the Editor, SF Examiner, Oct. 27)

Tornheim is responding to an Examiner article about the city's Homeward Bound program, which offers the homeless a bus ticket to wherever they have "a family member, friend or social worker at the other end who is willing to greet them." ("Hundreds Take Up City's Offer of Bus Ticket Home," SF Examiner, Oct. 20, Jo Stanley): "The average time spent on San Francisco streets by those who accepted the offer of a bus ticket was one year, officials said." 

As of October 9, 689 of the city's homeless have been bused out of town via this program. The article tells us that Homeward Bound is a program coordinated by the city's Human Services Agency and involves 32 specially trained plainclothes cops who operate out of the city's district stations.

Tornheim's linking the homeless and tourists is mystifying, since the homeless by definition are people living on the city's streets, while tourists come to San Francisco because they find it an attractive place to visit, staying in the city's hotels and eating at the city's restaurants. Tornheim's comment also reflects a typically progressive ignorance of the fact that tourism is the city's largest industry.

The suggestion that Homeward Bound isn't compassionate also fails the common sense test. Homeless people are taken off the streets and given a ticket to wherever they have family or someone else to meet them on the other end. This is surely good for both the homeless and the city.

Of course if Los Angeles bused a homeless person to San Francisco under the same circumstances, it would be acceptable. Why wouldn't it be?

The fact of the matter is that progressives---Tornheim was a hardcore Gonzalez supporter against Newsom---essentially have had no serious political response to Mayor Newsom's Care Not Cash program the city's voters gratefully passed a couple of years ago. 

Instead of engaging in some long overdue self-criticism, they are stewing resentfully about the ongoing success of Care Not Cash, not to mention Newsom's defeat of Greenie Matt Gonzalez in the last campaign for mayor.

Here's a special bonus question: Can anyone remember Gonzalez's proposals on homelessness during that campaign?