The Homeless Industrial Complex is thriving.
side of the road. Photo credit Getty Images
By Joe Hiti, Audacy
The program that gives alcohol to homeless alcoholics in San Francisco received criticism this week from a tech CEO in the city who questioned why it was spending money to feed addictions.
The “managed alcohol program,” which provides homeless people who are alcoholics booze, costs the city around $5 million a year and has been in place for four years, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Adam Nathan, the founder and CEO of Blaze, a small business marketing tool, and the chair of the Salvation Army San Francisco Metro Advisory Board, said last week that the program “just doesn’t feel right.”
“[San Francisco] provides free Alcohol to people struggling with chronic alcoholism who are mostly homeless,” Nathan wrote on X.
The Chronicle reports that the program has nurses dispense “controlled doses” of vodka and beer to homeless people at specific times of the day and is intended to keep them off the streets, out of jail, and out of the emergency room.
Currently, the program is run out of a former hotel and has 20 beds available. The Chronicle says that 65 people have been served over the four years the program has existed.
Nathan shared on social media that he went to look into the program, asking, “Where’s the recovery in all of this?”
“Inside the lobby, they had a kegs set up to taps where they were basically giving out free beer to the homeless who’ve been identified with [alcohol use disorder],” he wrote. “It’s set up so people in the program just walk in and grab a beer, and then another one. All day.”
He went on to say, “Providing free drugs to drug addicts doesn’t solve their problems. It just stretches them out.”
Nathan went on to say that while’s not an expert in the areas of recovery, he is concerned with how his tax dollars are being used in his city.
“I’m no doctor or ‘expert’ on issues of drug policy,” he continued. “But I am a taxpayer. When did this Managed Alcohol Program get approved? Where were the public hearings? Why is it hidden away in an old hotel?”
www.audacy.com
side of the road. Photo credit Getty Images
By Joe Hiti, Audacy
The program that gives alcohol to homeless alcoholics in San Francisco received criticism this week from a tech CEO in the city who questioned why it was spending money to feed addictions.
The “managed alcohol program,” which provides homeless people who are alcoholics booze, costs the city around $5 million a year and has been in place for four years, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Adam Nathan, the founder and CEO of Blaze, a small business marketing tool, and the chair of the Salvation Army San Francisco Metro Advisory Board, said last week that the program “just doesn’t feel right.”
“[San Francisco] provides free Alcohol to people struggling with chronic alcoholism who are mostly homeless,” Nathan wrote on X.
The Chronicle reports that the program has nurses dispense “controlled doses” of vodka and beer to homeless people at specific times of the day and is intended to keep them off the streets, out of jail, and out of the emergency room.
Currently, the program is run out of a former hotel and has 20 beds available. The Chronicle says that 65 people have been served over the four years the program has existed.
Nathan shared on social media that he went to look into the program, asking, “Where’s the recovery in all of this?”
“Inside the lobby, they had a kegs set up to taps where they were basically giving out free beer to the homeless who’ve been identified with [alcohol use disorder],” he wrote. “It’s set up so people in the program just walk in and grab a beer, and then another one. All day.”
He went on to say, “Providing free drugs to drug addicts doesn’t solve their problems. It just stretches them out.”
Nathan went on to say that while’s not an expert in the areas of recovery, he is concerned with how his tax dollars are being used in his city.
“I’m no doctor or ‘expert’ on issues of drug policy,” he continued. “But I am a taxpayer. When did this Managed Alcohol Program get approved? Where were the public hearings? Why is it hidden away in an old hotel?”
San Francisco is spending $5M to give alcohol to the homeless
The program that gives alcohol to homeless alcoholics in San Francisco received criticism this week from a tech CEO in the city who questioned why it was spending money to feed addictions.
www.audacy.com
