Anchorage to Buy Homeless One-Way Plane Tickets
Homeless service providers in Anchorage, Alaska are giving "pilot program" a whole new meaning. This week, the city announced plans to buy hundreds of one-way plane tickets to fly its homeless population out of Anchorage and into remote Alaskan villages. City officials say they are enabling "family reunification"; I say they are shirking their duty to serve the homeless.
We're calling shenanigans on you, Anchorage. Are plane tickets really the best you can do?
Anchorage is not the first city to adopt such a terrible policy. In the past year, Hawaii and New York City have both come under fire for shipping out their homeless with plane tickets.
It's not hard to understand why this policy is becoming increasingly favored by financially strapped cities. Plane tickets are cheaper than providing case management, housing, or homeless prevention assistance. In the short term, when demand is up and funds are low, plane tickets might seem like a brilliant idea; a fast and cheap way to ease demand and serve more people.
But any short-term financial gains in one city will inevitably become a long-term burden on another unsuspecting community. In the long run, plane tickets are nothing more than a cruel, cheap way of ridding a city of its homeless population through exportation. Put them on a plane, then forget about them; someone else's responsibility now.
Let's call this policy what it is: a cop-out.
When it comes to serving the homeless, we can do better than simply providing plane tickets.
Shannon Moriarty
has worked in various homeless shelters and service organizations around the country. She is a graduate student studying housing and urban policy at Tufts University.
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