Homeless people who gather in transit facilities in New York, San Francisco and Baltimore will be offered shelter and an array of social services under a $1.75 million test program announced Friday by the Transportation Department.
"This is a win-win program," said Transportation Secretary Samuel K. Skinner in announcing the project, which is to involve four other Cabinet departments."`Homeless people will be better served and transit authorities' security and maintenance burdens will be eased," Skinner said.
"President Bush has charged us to cut the red tape that keeps those in need from government services," he said. "This joint program could improve the delivery of services to our homeless population."
Skinner said the project is intended to demonstrate ways in which homeless people can be helped with alternative shelter and housing, and with a wide variety of social services including health, mental health, treatment for drug and alcohol abuse, employment, job training, education and nutrition.
The Urban Mass Transportation Administration will administer grants to the three cities and assess the effects of the program on homeless people and transit facilities.
In New York, the program will concentrate on people who gather at both ends of the Staten Island Ferry, in the Whitehall Terminal in Manhattan and the St. George Terminal in Staten Island.
"The goal in Baltimore is to try to eliminate the need for homeless people to rely on the Howard-Lexington Transit Complex to meet their basic living needs," the department said.
A homeless outreach team will provide the services in the transit complex area.
In San Francisco, the program will build on an effort to help homeless people at the TransBay Terminal already initiated by the San Francisco Foundation and Travelers Aid-San Francisco.
The terminal serves six major carriers, including Greyhound, an Amtrak shuttle service and four county bus services.
Other Cabinet departments involved in the effort include Agriculture, Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human Services, and Labor.