Homeless and mentally ill get dumped in Atlantic City

From Philly.com: William Southrey, president of the Atlantic City Rescue Mission, said the mission has seen 87 people from Pennsylvania so far this year, 42 from Gloucester County, 56 from Cumberland County, and 70 from Camden County, most without referrals. He called Gloucester County one of the worst offenders in sending people without referrals, which county officials denied.

“They’re using the term Greyhound therapy,” Southrey said, of social service agencies elsewhere who see the seaside resort town’s shelters, soup kitchens, and recovery programs as answers to their needs and often send off their clients on buses. “In the dark of the night, some of them just roll out of jail, they send them to us.”

The economists call this “externality,”  where you stick someone else with your expenses. Like when you dump your toxic waste behind your factory and the federal government has to clean it up.

via How the homeless, mentally ill land in Atlantic City.

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