My question is regarding Welfare in general, but particularly New York State. I relocated to Binghamton, NY some years ago, from New York City. In my time here in this city, I have had friends, in-laws, and co-workers explain to me, very
matter-of-factly, that in New York City’s welfare offices they advertise Binghamton, NY as an ideal place to relocate to. I was perplexed to say the least. They never have first hand information and it’s always a friend of a friend that magically gleamed this knowledge from a recent arrival. Is that the case?
As a Brooklynite, this mystifies me to no end. Seeing as I’ve been fortunate enough to not have needed to go to the welfare offices in New York City, I can’t disprove this ridiculous statement. My search online proved fruitless.
Is this something other cities do as well? Advertise the benefits of relocating to another area of the state or another state altogether, for welfare benefits?
I was hoping someone with a bit more expertise than i, could clear this matter up. It would help give me some piece of mind that folks around these parts are sadly and completely mistaken.
yes there have been cases of states/cities buying bus tickets to get people on public assistance out of town or to another state. I believe Calif. was shipping people to Nevada.
Shipping people out of state makes sense, since then they’re somebody else’s problem. But just shipping them to another town in the same state won’t do anything, since the welfare programs are run by the state.
Or other aspects of cost of living, like food and clothes. Yeah, I guess that might make some sense, then, especially since the cost of living is quite high in NYC.
I’m certain NYC welfare offices do no such thing. Not because I think they are above it, but because I have spent the last 30 years of my professional life dealing with a large enough population of welfare recipients that I would have heard about it.
What absolutely has happened is that the agency that runs NYC shelters (which is sometimes part of the agency that administers welfare and food stamps and sometimes isn’t) will buy bus or plane tickets for homeless people who have family they can stay with outsideof NYC
I have no idea if it really happens in that case but it is not a new idea. Here is an old very non-PC and NSFW Sam Kinson bit with the same idea (basically buy U-Hauls, not food) and, you have to admit, it does make sense in some situations. If you really can’t make it work to live somewhere, one of the top ideas should be to consider moving. That applies as much to lower level Silicon Valley professionals as it does for people on welfare in NYC.
Hawaii for the longest time (don’t know if they still do it) had a policy of giving free airline tickets to California and some spending money to any homeless willing to take it but very few did because of the fact Hawaii is one of the few states where the lowest recorded temperature ever in its major city was 52 degrees (Los Angeles has seen lows in the single digits in comparison) and thus was much more comfortable to live in as someone homeless.
I believe now the current plan is to take one of the small unoccupied islands nearby and build housing for them, effectively giving them their own entire island to do whatever they want.
I’m not sure that’s happened yet. At least, I’ve not heard about it since I’ve been back. And there is a bad homeless problem. It’s especially apparent downtown and in many parks.
They’re not doing the airline-ticket thing anymore though.
Doreen came a smidgen closest to what i was looking for (experience!).
Read the articles and it will at least help me deflate the argument that people from NYC are invading Binghamton due to the welcome mat (or kick in the pants?) being offered in NYC welfare offices.