Transportation and Being Homeless

Just this past October the Fort Worth Transportation Authority, The “T”, announced that they would being eliminating one of their fare programs that was put in place to assist the homeless and low income people here by October of 2015. In general what this program did was to provide free bus passes to those in need.

While they expressed several reasons for the elimination of the program, some of which i have a problem with, what concerns me most is the impact this will have on the homeless community.
Recently, there was a “Transportation Summit” that was put on by the Tarrant Area Homeless Coalition. Basically it was held to let people in the homeless community express their concerns or opinions about the elimination of the free fare program. There were many concerns discussed but what it really boiled down to was in order to accomplish anything to end that person’s homelessness, transportation to and from various parts of Ft Worth is a major consideration. Here is a short list of some of the more popular / necessary destinations.
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1. JPS Hospital for specialty medical appointments, medication pick-ups at the pharmacy or getting to the Urgent Care unit at the hospital when the local JPS clinic is closed or not an option.

2. Texas Workforce Commission for the obvious… job hunting and training.

3. Social Security Administration for anything related to Social Security that requires a personal visit, which is most things that affect a homeless individual.

4. Texas Department of Public Safety to replace lost or stolen identification cards.

Even though there is now and has been for many years the free fare program, getting a day pass for the bus was not guaranteed. There was and is a limited number of passes available from the various sources on any given day. In addition, you needed a good reason before you could get a daily pass such as a verifiable medical appointment, job interview or some other real need.

While I was still homeless, my access to free bus passes was either non-existent or more hassle than it was worth because I did not have ready access to a case manager or other source. In almost every case I walked everywhere I needed to be. Luckily, even at 60+ years old I was and still am in pretty good shape so walking wasn’t anything more than an annoyance or just plain time consuming. For example, I would walk to the hospital, when I needed those services, a distance of about 4 miles one way then walk back which took 2 to 3 hours round trip not counting time at the hospital. When I was still on probation I had to walk 11 miles one way which, more often that not, meant that I left my camp at 4am just to arrive in time for my appointment which was usually around 8am.

For a large number of homeless people walking is not an option. They just can’t. Mostly it’s because they have physical issues that prevent them from walking any kind of distance. For others it may mean leaving the shelter early in the morning, missing any meals they would normally have gotten at the shelter and if the distance from the shelter was far enough they may not return in time to check in for a bed that night or miss curfew.

With all the other barriers that make it difficult to recover from being homeless, taking away a vital service such as free bus transportation will only prevent, not aid in, the elimination of the homeless problem. In fact, if you think about it and carry the thought of no free bus transportation through to the end, only more harm will result in their lives. The idea here is to help those in need, not keep them down or make their lives even more difficult.