I think what they're trying to illustrate with busing is that instead of being a solution to actively solve the problem of homelessness, cities are just unloading people elsewhere for someone and somewhere else to deal with without much concern as to the outcome of the individuals to actively solve the problem of the local homeless population. I can't completely fault cities for that. On a first glance, logical basis, the idea seems to make some sense. After all, I can imagine it would be easier for 10 cities to worry about 500 homeless people a piece than for one city to worry about 5,000 homeless by themselves. Also, comparing the cost of taking care of a homeless person against a one way bus ticket also stands out quite a bit.

The concern I have, after reading this article, is the lack of concern for follow up and collecting quality data, because that information could be useful. I think that if more research and communication and effort took place, seeing what works and what doesn't and figuring out why, busing goes from just being a viable solution to tackling population numbers to actually being an effective solution for combating homelessness. These people aren't just numbers on paper. They're people who feel love and joy and fear and frustration and for the sake of their humanity and everything that that encompasses, they deserve a little more effort than just being bused somewhere else to be someone else's problem.