In an effort to curb their homeless population, the Department of Human Services in Hawaii has launched a pilot program titled "return to home" which offers free one-way tickets out of Hawaii for homeless locals, RT reports.
Hawaii is looking to cut back on spending for food, shelter, and other services that currently serve the estimated 17,000 homeless individuals in the state. The program has already accumulated the necessary funds to launch this year and will begin distributing plane tickets and possibly spots on cruise ships. The goal is to link homeless people back to family or friends in other parts of the U.S.
Department of Human Services spokesperson Kayla Rosenfeld elabored on the project to MSN News:
"Provisions include: transportation to the airport, orientation regarding airport security and ensuring proper hygiene. Additionally, if state funds were utilized for the purpose of sending people home, the participants would be required to sign voluntary departure agreements that would need to be recorded in databases. Given these requirements and others, and a minimal appropriation of $100,000 for a three-year pilot project, providers are understandably reluctant to take on a state-funded return to home program."
Rosenfeld also noted the requirements for the new project are "costly and administratively burdensome."
This program is not the first of it's kind, in U.S. Cities including San Francisco, Baton Rouge, and Fort Lauderdale have tried using similar frameworks to fix their growing homelessness. Hawaii State Representative John Mizuno defended the program and explained it's not necessarily for everyone.
"It's fractional, it's not for 5,000 homeless people," Mizuno said, "It's going to be a handful of homeless people that we send home, again - home to their support unit."
Others have been critical and skeptical of Return to Home. Michael Stoops of the National Coalition for the Homeless told MSN News that a program like this is simply created to rid the public eye of homeless people:
"In the homelessness field it was once called greyhound therapy. Hawaii now goes a step higher with airplane therapy," Stoops said. "Oftentimes local police departments run such programs offering the stark choices of going to a shelter, jail or hopping on a bus or plane home."
The program is entirely voluntary. In order to be eligible for a ticket, you must have proof of family or friends in whichever state you will be departing to.
