South Carolina Town Blames Free Buses for Rise in Unhoused Population

The city manager of North Myrtle Beach says free fares on the region’s buses are encouraging more unhoused people to travel to his town, despite an absence of supportive services in North Myrtle Beach. 

As Adam Benson reports in Mass Transit, “Mayor Marilyn Hatley and city spokesman Donald Graham said Mahaney was referring to a fare-free policy by Coast RTA in place the last two years that's led to a four-fold uptick in the city's counted homeless population,” though evidence for the connection is tenuous. “I'm not really sure why somebody who's homeless would go from Myrtle Beach to North Myrtle Beach when the services aren't available,” said Kathy Jenkins, CEO of New Directions.

According to Myrtle Beach Public Information Director Mark Kruea, “New Directions does provide transportation out of the area for people who wish to reconnect with their family support groups. And I believe they use some city-provided funding for that purpose — specifically bus tickets — but it's not a frequent thing.”

The article notes that “Further details about the comment and the context are hard to come by for the public. North Myrtle Beach stopped broadcasting its meetings coming out of COVID protocols and minutes of the July 6 session had not been posted to the city's website as of July 13.” Coast RTA says the agency will resume normal fares “within a few weeks.”