Pennington County bus vouchers for homeless cause concern
For over a year, Lloyd Big Crow, Oglala Lakota, had heard rumors that Pennington County provided one-way tickets out of the city to homeless and recently incarcerated individuals. In late October, he finally got proof.
Frustrated with the city's decision to fence off the Memorial Park bandshell and other actions he said have been taken against homeless individuals, on Nov. 3 Big Crow decided to post evidence of bus vouchers on social media..
The vouchers from the Pennington County Department of Human Services allow individuals to choose their destination city. A now-former version of the agreement signed by individuals read, in part, "As part of this agreement I understand I am unable to return to Pennington County and I am not eligible for any additional service now or in the future."
The Pennington County Department of Human Services did not respond to requests for comment from ICT and the Rapid City Journal but later issued a press release.
"We recognize that the original wording may not have fully conveyed our commitment to compassion and support," the department said in a statement on Nov. 4. "We have revised the form to better reflect our intent: to assist individuals lacking transportation options and to facilitate safe, supportive transitions to communities where they can access stability and additional resources."
As of 2022, 76 percent of the homeless population in Rapid City was Native American. The Nov. 4 press release stated that Native, Black, white and multi-racial individuals have all used the bus voucher system.
"The program meets a critical need in our service landscape, as transportation resources for such purposes remain limited," the press release said. "Each individual receives careful attention, and an arrival plan tailored to ensure they connect with a support network upon reaching their destination."
The department shared a new version of the bus voucher form that does not contain the "unable to return" wording.
Big Crow's post spread rapidly through social media, with over 1,100 shares and some online comparing the bus vouchers to the 1956 Indian Relocation Act, which incentivized Indigenous people to move from their reservations to cities with the promise of jobs and housing.
"How could we make the original occupants of this land feel more unwelcome?" said Tom Whillock, an organizer with Oyáte kiŋ čhaŋtéwaštepi. "To say, 'We're going to bus you out of here and you can never come back, and then we're going to put a cage up around the shelter so you can't even have a meal and a little bit of shelter?'"
Rapid City Mayor Jason Salamun addressed the city's decision to barricade the bandshell during a Nov. 4 press conference.
"This has nothing to do with stopping the meals that are happening at the bandshell," Salamun said. "The issue wasn't about the weekly meals, it was what was happening between the meals that was concerning."
Big Crow said one individual who received the bus voucher decided to go to Arizona and is now homeless there and stranded with no way to make it home.
When asked about it at the Monday afternoon press conference, Salamun said he had not heard of the bus vouchers, but thought vouchers like these can be effective in getting homeless people back to their families.
This story is co-published by the Rapid City Journal and ICT, a news partnership that covers Indigenous communities in the South Dakota area.
Amelia Schafer is the Indigenous Affairs reporter for ICT and the Rapid City Journal. She is of Wampanoag and Montauk-Brothertown Indian Nation descent. She is based in Rapid City. You can contact her at .
Indigenous Affairs Reporter
