A program that provides free booze to San Francisco’s homeless alcoholics came under fire this week after a tech company CEO questioned the logic of feeding the addicts of the city’s street dwellers.
Adam Nathan, founder and CEO of Blaze, an AI marketing tool for small businesses, and chair of the Salvation Army San Francisco Subway Advisory Board, says homeless drunks seeking shots I posted a thread on X criticizing the program. “I feel sick,” he said.
“Did you know that San Francisco spends $2 million a year on its ‘Managed Alcohol Program’?” We provide free alcohol to homeless people suffering from chronic alcoholism. ” Nathan wrote on social media sites.
His estimate was actually only 40% of the total cost. The actual cost of the Managed Alcohol Program, which lasted four years, was $5 million a year for the city. The San Francisco Chronicle reported.
The program, described by the Chronicle, involves nurses handing out “controlled doses” of vodka and beer to people on the street at specific times of the day. The facility, which aims to keep homeless people off the streets and out of jails and emergency rooms, operates out of a former hotel in the city’s Tenderloin neighborhood.
The program started with 10 beds and has now expanded to 20 beds, the Chronicle reported. The report says it served a total of 65 clients over four years, with the goal of keeping participants out of the ER and reducing calls to police.
Nathan said he kept a close eye on the high-octane giveaways.
“Inside the lobby, we had kegs on taps and we were basically handing out free beer to people who were identified as homeless. [alcohol use disorder],” he wrote. “It’s set up so that participants in the program just come in, have a beer, and then have another drink all day long.”
“Giving drug addicts free drugs doesn’t solve their problems. It only stretches them,” Nathan continued. “Where is the recovery in all of this?”
In his post, he noted that in some regions, such as British Columbia, Canada, there is a harm reduction approach called “safe supply” that provides free opioids to users to prevent fentanyl overdoses.
But these efforts have had mixed results and sparked “huge debate,” Nathan said.
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“I am neither a doctor nor an ‘expert’ on drug policy issues,” he continued. “But I’m a taxpayer. When was this managed alcohol program approved? Where were the public hearings held? Why is it hidden in an old hotel?”
The Salvation Army has a number of recovery programs that focus on abstinence.
Nathan told the show that the San Francisco Department of Health is “concerned about how this program will be received by the public, so local residents are not being adequately informed about this program. This was borne out by the response to my tweet.”
City health officials countered that Nathan was spreading false information and that the alcohol on the premises was not readily available to everyone.
In a follow-up post after the Chronicle article, he pointed to President Biden’s infrastructure bill, the bipartisan CHIP Act, and said, “As a Democrat, I want more programs that accomplish goals and provide public benefits. “I’m all for redirecting government funds.” An example is medical subsidies for low-income people. “But this won’t work.”
He said the city’s health department is “aimed at keeping people sick rather than helping them recover,” adding, “We are living in adversity.”
