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Homeless advocate suggests 'wet shelter' for capital
Last Updated: Friday, November 3, 2006 | 10:50 AM AT
CBC News
The executive director of the Fredericton Emergency Shelter wants to start a moderated drinking program for some residents.
Pat Carlson says some homeless alcoholics would benefit from drinking a controlled amount of alcohol every day.
People who have been drinking aren't allowed into the shelter, and Carlson says a short-term pilot project might get some people who would otherwise be binge drinking off the streets.
Carlson says the program would be similar to one at a Toronto men's shelter. The drinks would be stored in a secure room and offered in small doses, a few ounces every hour.
She says it would help chronic alcoholics who want to get off booze.
"We may have some people who say, 'I don't need this anymore. I can wean myself and I want to wean myself, and I can go now and stay in a room because I'm not going to blow all my money on alcohol.'"
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Shelter resident Wayne Hepperle says he has seen people stuck in the rain because they're too drunk to enter the building. That defeats the purpose of even having a shelter, he says.
"Well yeah, that's what this place is all about, to keep people off the street at night. For [cold and wet] weather like this, it's pretty risky."
Carlson says her program would assist the most chronic alcoholics at the shelter by supplying them with just enough alcohol to satisfy their cravings. She's hoping to start the pilot project as early as this winter.
10 comments:
Yes! Free booze for bums. It does pay for being a bum.
ignorance!!!!
Yeah, all the free leftover pizza from the dumpster you can eat...all the roasted rat you could want...listerine night and day...nice fresh sort of clean air -all day and all night year round! That's the life!
Anonymous 5:40 PM, it is so very easy to condemn someone as being a "bum" without knowing anything about him except what your preconceived notions tell you. What Pat Carlson and others are recommending is a treatment program for alcoholics that acknowledges they have a disease and then tries to help them. There are a number of so called "wet" shelters across the country and generally, they are fairly successful in terms of helping the guys (and they are mostly guys) deal with their disease while having a warm, dry, safe place to live and sleep. Pat is one of the leaders in the movement to come up with creative solutions to the problems facing us - please do not dump on the idea unless you know something about it.
good one Mark, Thank you. Wouldn't you love to meet scum like that. It so easy to kick someone thats down. There but for the grace of God go I. As Charles says why stick around and make such remarks? Dad always said "Its better to stand and look a fool than open your mouth and remove all doubt.
The person who wrote that first comment is probably the same ignorant person who likes to make comments about people on welfare.
The Keyboard Rambo's are out in full force Charles!!.......I guess that means you are doing a good job bud......otherwise nobody would even notice.....You're more fair than me.....I wouldn't even post their crap......it would go right into the garbage where it belongs. :-)
Ya never know, a thread like this usually doesnt' get any responses from people, which is a bad sign to the blog owner and New Brunswickers since it makes it look like people couldn't care less. Somebody (though it wasn't me) could have 'flamed' that just to get people to come forward and make some positives statements about the program, who knows, maybe a few would be disgusted enough to give Pat a call and find out what they can do to help.
One of the biggest obstacles is city government. Contact them and check out theshelter.ca to see what you can do to help.
PS there is only one negative comment on this thread though, I wrote the 'roasted rat' comments, I thought the sarcasm aimed at the first post was quite clear. And people are entitled to an opinion, even if you don't like it. Let's not pretend that people have been doing much for these alcoholics, so I suspect people don't have THAT much sympathy.
Just so everyone is clear my comment about keyboard rambo's was more a statement about the large amount of comments over the last couple of days aimed squarely at and attacking Charles. Free speech is one thing, but i'd be darned if i'd let them stand if I was Charles........If they want to attack him? Let them start their own blog.....although I imagine those in question would be far too lazy for that.
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