I don't agree with it, but the Bloomberg administration in NYC tried a program where they bought one-way plane tickets for homeless families[1] to leave the overcrowded shelter system. Critics were against it because it wasn't addressing any of the root causes of the problem, rather just moving/hiding it in a similar way to the bulldozing of "the Jungle"

I am struggling to find the name of the program in the article in order to see if it has "worked" in any way to reduce homelessness. Not sure if it is even still around.

EDIT: It's called Project Reconnect[2] and it is still around even though De Blasio apparently was against it[3]

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/29/nyregion/29oneway.html [2] http://www1.nyc.gov/nyc-resources/service/3601/project-recon... [3] http://nypost.com/2014/09/06/de-blasio-has-sent-1412-homeles...