If you're down on your luck in the nation's second-largest gambling market, you may have won...a free ticket out of town!
Reducing Atlantic City's 500 person homeless population is a key element of a new effort to help the town's struggling casino business rebound after nearly five years of decreases in revenue and jobs. Atlantic City has lost nearly a third of its business since 2006, as Philadelphia, New York and Delaware have tried to compete more directly with new Jersey's casinos. Close to $100,000 will go to a local homeless shelter in order to purchase bus or plane tickets back home for any homeless person who wants to leave town. The Get The Fuck Out Of Town You Homeless Piece Of Shit Travelers Assistance Program has been around for years, but would greatly expand with the additional funding. Those not "assisted" buy the program could be met with increased sweeps of the Boardwalk to move homeless squatters along.
More than half the city's homeless live at the Atlantic City Rescue Mission, while an additional 100 or so are on the streets or live under the Boardwalk. Close to 100 live in other places like abandoned buildings. The previous amount allocated to throwing the homeless out was $25,000 to $40,000 a year, which typically helped a few hundred people a year get back home. Now more than doubled by the casino authority, could it be that they could eliminate their homeless problem?
The program is strictly voluntary; no homeless person who wants to stay put will be forced to leave. And before anyone leaves, the ACRM will make sure there is someone back home who is willing to take them in. Las Vegas runs two similar programs, also aimed at getting the homeless away from the casino zones and back to where they came from. Has it helped their business? Unlikely, but the logic by the state's casino authority is that less homeless will equal more casino revenue, and as long as they're the one's giving the money, they only need to justify that to themselves. Even a local soup kitchen cook doesn't draw the parallel between the casino business and the homeless: "There are homeless in every city. You can't just put them on a bus, send them back home and forget about it. That's just moving people around, not solving the problem." Well, the casinos want to bet you're wrong...
More than half the city's homeless live at the Atlantic City Rescue Mission, while an additional 100 or so are on the streets or live under the Boardwalk. Close to 100 live in other places like abandoned buildings. The previous amount allocated to throwing the homeless out was $25,000 to $40,000 a year, which typically helped a few hundred people a year get back home. Now more than doubled by the casino authority, could it be that they could eliminate their homeless problem?
The program is strictly voluntary; no homeless person who wants to stay put will be forced to leave. And before anyone leaves, the ACRM will make sure there is someone back home who is willing to take them in. Las Vegas runs two similar programs, also aimed at getting the homeless away from the casino zones and back to where they came from. Has it helped their business? Unlikely, but the logic by the state's casino authority is that less homeless will equal more casino revenue, and as long as they're the one's giving the money, they only need to justify that to themselves. Even a local soup kitchen cook doesn't draw the parallel between the casino business and the homeless: "There are homeless in every city. You can't just put them on a bus, send them back home and forget about it. That's just moving people around, not solving the problem." Well, the casinos want to bet you're wrong...
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