Lost Without Those Paper Transfers

Metro's plan to eliminate bus-to-bus paper transfers in January [Metro, Nov. 4] fails to consider the impact this will have on the region's most vulnerable residents, who are also the most reliant on public transportation, particularly buses.

Individuals and families struggling with homelessness and poverty need transportation assistance. Indeed, it is the thread that keeps the social services safety net from unraveling. Nonprofit organizations, the main providers of this assistance, must have a way to effectively give one-time, one-way fares to clients so that they can access services for health, mental health, employment assistance, shelter and more.

Although some people will be able to safely hold on to their SmarTrip cards, many will lose them. Wallets are constantly stolen in shelters or on the street, and lost belongings are an enduring issue in an unstable living situation. Under the new system, nonprofit providers would not be able to help clients reach critical social services if the clients lose their SmarTrip cards.

With social service nonprofits being squeezed by increasing demand and decreasing donations, nonprofit agencies do not have the budget capacity to purchase SmarTrip cards for clients, especially at the rate that cards will be lost or stolen.

Although the 50,000 free SmarTrip cards that Metro is proposing to provide to nonprofits will help, there is no realistic way for the free cards to reach all who need them. Moreover, once these free cards are distributed, there is no plan to give additional SmarTrip cards to the nonprofits.

Also, the increased fares for those not using SmarTrip cards will be a further burden on both nonprofits and the low-income clients they serve. For example, with a SmarTrip card, transferring between two buses costs only $1.25; you automatically receive a free transfer and a window in which to make a free return trip. However, to make the same trip without a SmarTrip card you would have to use two tokens, or one for each bus, at $1.35 each, and you still have to pay for the return trip. It is absurd to make low-income residents pay as much as $4.15 more for the same trip because they lacked a SmarTrip card.

The nonprofits that provide transportation assistance simply do not have the budgets to absorb the ongoing increased costs created by Metro's plan.

We support Metro's efforts to encourage the use of SmarTrip cards, save money and prevent fraud and abuse, but system changes must accommodate the needs of homeless and low-income residents. If not, the resulting breakdown of health, mental health and other social services will ultimately be more costly to the city. The elimination of paper transfers is set to take place on Jan. 4, and residents should contact the Metro board to let them know that the plan needs to change.

-- Scott Schenkelberg

Washington

-- Erika Barry

Washington

The writers are, respectively, executive director of Miriam's Kitchen and executive director of the Dinner Program for Homeless Women.