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San Francisco’s decision to provide free beer and vodka to homeless alcoholics has sparked an uproar among some residents of the liberal city.
“How are you going to give [some] alcoholic some alcohol?” one man rhetorically asked Fox News contributor Sara Carter.
“That’s some bull!”
The “Managed Alcohol Program” (MAP) operated by San Francisco’s Department of Public Health serves regimented doses of alcohol to voluntary participants with alcohol addiction in an effort to keep the homeless off the streets and relieve the city’s emergency services.
Experts say the program can save or extend lives, but critics wonder if the government would be better off funding treatment and sobriety programs instead.
VideoCarter shared her conversations with a number of residents outraged by the pilot program on “Hannity” Tuesday.
“It’s really conflicting to give alcohol to alcoholics because it’s a disease. It’s a condition that is basically an obsession of the mind that turns into an allergy of the body. And it’s a disease that they can’t help,” another San Francisco resident told Carter.
“You’re enabling, and the possibility is for them to die, end up in an institution or death.”
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MAP was established during the COVID-19 pandemic to prevent vulnerable homeless people who were placed in isolation in hotel rooms from suffering from alcohol withdrawal. But the program, which started with 10 beds, has since been expanded into a 20-bed program that operates out of a former hotel in Tenderloin with a $5 million annual budget, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
“If that’s what the program is and it’s giving away free alcohol, that’s not a good use of money,” one San Francisco resident said.
A homeless encampment is seen in Tenderloin District of San Francisco on June 6, 2023. (Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Alice Moughamian, the nurse manager of the Managed Alcohol Program and the San Francisco Sobering Center, noted there is a larger goal beyond recovery for alcoholics.
“Our goal at MAP is not to decrease the amount of alcohol that is consumed, or to taper someone towards abstinence, although both of these things have happened with clients in our program,” she said in the October presentation. “The goal is to mitigate the many health, legal and interpersonal harms associated with unsafe alcohol use.”
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Many residents nonetheless feel the program is making the city an “enabler” of addiction and misusing taxpayer funds.
“I feel like they are being an enabler,” one man said. “They’re giving people alcohol who clearly has an addiction. So if you’re providing them with a means to get drunk, I mean, it makes no sense to me.”
“You don’t need to wean them off gradually,” another added. “Or if you are, don’t use taxpayer funds under the auspices of a government program to wean them.”
Fox News’ Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.
VideoMadeline Coggins is a Digital Production Assistant on the Fox News flash team with Fox News Digital.
