Add It Up: New York’s homeless get a free (plane) ride
Georgia is the third most popular state for New York’s unwanted homeless families!
Number of homeless families who were relocated from New York through the city’s one-way airline ticket program, since 2007: 550
Amount it costs the city of New York to house a homeless family for a year: $36,000
Amount the city spent to buy plane tickets for the 550 families: $1,000,000
Number of plane tickets the city purchased to relocate a family to Paris: 5
Number of states where the families have chosen to relocate: 24
Number of families that relocated to Georgia: 38
Number of states that had more families relocate there than Georgia did: 2
Number of homeless men who are housed at Atlanta’s Peachtree-Pine shelter: 350
Estimated cost to purchase 350 one-way tickets to New York: $29,750
Sources: New York Times, Sidestep.com