Free Booze, Pot, and Smokes for San Francisco’s Homeless
A new city program tries to make quarantine comfortable—for some.
Erica Sandberg
May 11, 2020 Covid-19
California
San Francisco officials deny direct involvement in a controversial program, funded by private sources, that provides free alcohol, cannabis, and cigarettes to homeless people living in the city’s hotels during the Covid-19 outbreak. After news about the special deliveries was leaked and caused embarrassment on social media, the city’s Department of Public Health issued a statement claiming that “rumors that guests of San Francisco’s alternative housing program are receiving taxpayer-funded deliveries of alcohol, cannabis and tobacco are false.â€
Except they’re not false. DPH, which administers and oversees the program, is staffed by city workers, including doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses, social workers, and security personnel. The department manages, stores, and distributes the substances. Employee time is involved. Thus, the program is financed by taxpayers, even if an outside group provides some of the funding. According to DPH spokesperson Jenna Lane, the philanthropists who helped purchase the substances wish to remain anonymous.
The program’s primary purpose is to keep homeless people, the majority of whom are addicts, out of harm’s way during the pandemic. By getting their substance of choice delivered, the thinking goes, the guests may be more apt to remain in their government-funded rooms. Another purpose of the program is to protect the public against the spread of coronavirus. The city doesn’t want homeless people who should be staying in their rooms roaming the neighborhood in search of the substances, potentially infecting others.
more
https://www.city-journal.org/san-francisco-homeless-free-alcohol-pot-cigarettes
