Free Republic

It hasn't gotten a lot of notice, but San Francisco has been quietly sending an average of more than 70 homeless folks a month back where they came from. Since February, the new streamlined "family reunification'' program has put some 450 general assistance recipients on buses with one-way tickets to whichever relatives or friends will have them. The program's not new -- it's been around for as long as anyone can remember.

One year after the Care Not Cash welfare reform program debuted amid furious opposition and fervent hopes, nearly 800 street people have been moved into supportive housing and general assistance rolls for the homeless have been slashed by 73 percent -- developments that represent San Francisco's most significant transformation in years in the landscape of homelessness. Yet, there are shortcomings. The newly housed often keep panhandling, finding it tough to live on their slashed welfare checks of $59 a month, down from the former $410 maximum -- and many have had to wait in shelters for as long as six...

It's been thrown out in court and revived again, demonized by some and longed for by others. And now today, two years after San Francisco voters overwhelmingly passed the Care Not Cash initiative to slash welfare payments to the homeless in exchange for housing, the city's great experiment in transforming how it treats its most desperate citizens will finally take effect.

<p>San Francisco supervisors spent five hours wrangling over the city's stalled Care Not Cash welfare reform plan Monday and finished with little more than finger-pointing, frayed tempers and the prospect of more of the same next week.</p> <p>While Proposition N, which was approved by the voters last November, was scheduled to take effect July 1, court rulings have left it up to the supervisors to decide whether cash payments for many of the city's homeless should be slashed from as much as $395 a month to $59 and replaced with guarantees of food, shelter and other city services.</p>