This. Texas once openly bragged about how they've solved their homeless problem by simply buying their homeless a bus fare to L.A. (See Gov Rick Perry bragging

This. Texas once openly bragged about how they've solved their homeless problem by simply buying their homeless a bus fare to L.A. (See Gov Rick Perry bragging about this during one of the GOP presidential candidate debates.) While they don't openly brag anymore, this is still their primary policy for dealing with the homeless... We know this because while writing a series of LA Times articles a few years ago on the homeless situation in Hollywood, George Lopez (the reporter, not the comedian) discovered that most of the homeless people he was interviewing weren't even L.A. locals. The overwhelming majority of the homeless came from the Midwest (mostly: Texas), because someone bought them a ticket and told them the weather here was great. And the bigger problem: when offered shelter, most homeless refuse because almost all shelters in L.A. are sober facilities that do not allow contraband (i.e., booze or drug paraphenelia) and they would rather keep their drugs/alcohol than have housing. This is why L.A. is attempting to introduce new rules that would prohibit individuals from camping in public areas if there is shelter space available and they refuse shelter.