New York, July 30 - New York City is making an attractive offer to its homeless - a one-way ticket out of the city and its expensive shelter system to save a hefty $36,000 a year per family.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg defended the programme Wednesday saying it's a heck of a lot cheaper for city hall to buy a one-way ticket (on average $218) versus providing an apartment that costs $36,000 dollars for a year.

'And given the cost of providing shelter for a family this saves taxpayers of New York an enormous amount of money and, keep in mind, nobody's forcing these people to go. They want to go,' he said.

Since 2007, the city has helped 564 families go elsewhere. Most went to Puerto Rico, the Carolinas, but in one case the city spent $6,000 flying one family to Paris.

'It's all part of the same fabric, the same effort to try to shrink, artificially, the population,' said Arnold Cohen of the Partnership for the Homeless as quoted by WaBC radio focusing on New York.