For several decades, various cities and towns in the United States have adopted relocation programs offering homeless people one-way tickets to move elsewhere.
[3] More recently, a nationwide investigation by The Guardian in 2017 found that many homeless relocation programs are offered by cities with high median incomes, helping people move to places with cheaper housing and a lower cost of living, but also fewer economic opportunities.
[1] Critics counter that while some instances can result in positive outcomes for the individuals being relocated, the programs in general have served as a convenient way for cities to reduce their own homeless populations and associated policing, medical, and support costs.
[1] The cities themselves were able to offer almost no information about the long-term outcomes for bus ticket recipients after they had reached their destinations, making it difficult to assess the success of those programs.
[1][5] An investigation by The Sacramento Bee published in 2013 suggested that dozens of mental health patients who received bus tickets after being discharged from Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital were later involved in a range of crimes and found that some of them were suicidal.