If you’ve spent any time on local social media channels in the last couple of weeks, you’ve probably come across the San Francisco Standard article about San Francisco Mayor London Breed’s latest effort to alleviate the city’s homeless crisis by bussing people out of the area. The article has drawn local attention because it claims Humboldt County is among the “top three destinations” for homeless people being sent out of the city. 

According to the article, since August 2022, San Francisco “has sent at least 857 homeless people to other states and California counties” through one of the city’s three relocation assistance programs. 

“While the city is unable to say where hundreds have gone through its longstanding Homeward Bound program, newly obtained data from the Journey Home program — which launched in September 2023 — show 27% of 92 clients were sent to other California counties,” the article states. “After California, Oregon is the second-most-popular destination, making up roughly 10% of the 92 clients in the program, according to data collected from the time of its launch to Aug. 2.”

That means in the last year approximately 25 homeless people were sent to live elsewhere in California, with Humboldt, Los Angeles and Sacramento counties being the “top destinations.” Unfortunately, the article does not link to the data it’s referring to, nor does it include any specifics on exactly how many people were sent to Humboldt.

The Outpost contacted the San Francisco Human Services Agency (SFHSA) for more detailed statistics but was told that the information was confidential.

“Due to client privacy, we are unfortunately unable to share specific numbers of people who have traveled back to Humboldt County, because in some cases, the number of people traveling back to destination counties are quite small and only one person may have traveled there, which could be identifying,” according to an emailed statement from SFHSA. “However, please note that as with every person served as part of the Journey Home program, these individuals are either from the destination county — in this case Humboldt — or have family and friends who our staff spoke with directly.”

We also contacted the Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) for additional information but spokesperson Christine Messinger said the county “do[es] not have information about how many people experiencing homelessness have been sent to Humboldt through other jurisdiction’s transportation assistance programs.”

(Messinger did note that, since 2021, the county has helped relocate “an average of nine people a month” through the county’s Transportation Assistance Program, launched in 2006.)

At this week’s meeting, the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors will consider sending a letter to Mayor Breed that asks for more information about the city’s policies and procedures for the Journey Home program, as well as “all program and outcome data collected since September 2023.”

The letter says the county was “dismayed to learn that our small, rural county was among the top three destinations in the state where people experiencing homelessness” are sent through the Journey Home program. The letter acknowledges the “urgency with which San Francisco intends to act to alleviate homelessness” but asks that the city do more to work with the county to “alleviate homelessness across the state.”

“We are concerned that providing bus tickets to other jurisdictions without verifying access to housing, family support or employment does not alleviate homelessness; it simply shifts the person to another county,” the letter states. “We urge you to ensure that Journey Home participants have the support they need to obtain housing and employment before they receive transportation assistance to Humboldt County.”

If this request sounds familiar, that’s because a very similar situation played out between the county and San Francisco officials almost 20 years ago. 

Some of our readers will recall back in 2006 when the Board of Supervisors found out San Francisco had sent at least 13 homeless people to Humboldt County through the city’s Homeward Bound program, which provides a one-way bus ticket to folks who want to return to their families or home communities. 

Local officials were able to work out an agreement that required San Francisco to alert the county whenever someone was being sent to Humboldt. The agreement also required San Francisco to verify beforehand that the person was actually from the area before sending them up here. It’s not clear what happened to the agreement.

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DOCUMENT: Letter to Mayor London Breed