The San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH) confirmed in a tweet Tuesday that homeless people put up in hotels are being given free alcohol and drugs.
A Twitter user named “T Wolf” who calls himself a “formerly homeless addict,” sent a tweet this week saying he’s heard reports of homeless people getting free alcohol, marijuana and methadone.
“I just found out that homeless placed in hotels in SF are being delivered Alcohol, Weed and Methadone because they identified as an addict/alcoholic for FREE. You’re supposed to be offering treatment. This is enabling and is wrong on many levels,” he said.
The SFDPH responded, “These harm reduction based practices, which are not unique to San Francisco, and are not paid for with taxpayer money, help guests successfully complete isolation and quarantine and have significant individual and public health benefits in the COVID-19 pandemic.”
These harm reduction based practices, which are not unique to San Francisco, and are not paid for with taxpayer money, help guests successfully complete isolation and quarantine and have significant individual and public health benefits in the COVID-19 pandemic.
— SFDPH (@SF_DPH) May 5, 2020
Though the SFDPH claims that taxpayer money is not being used, it does not clarify who is paying for the alcohol and drugs.
Homelessness has long been a problem in San Francisco. In 2019, city data indicated there were 8,011 homeless people in the city, an 18 percent increase from 2015.
A pedestrian walks by a homeless man who is begging for money on May 17, 2019 in San Francisco, California. 8,011 homeless people were counted in January of this year compared to 6,858 people in 2017. Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.
The fate of the homeless in the coronavirus pandemic is increasingly a matter of public concern, as many worry that it could devastate cities’ homeless populations. (RELATED: ‘It Could Be A Disaster’: Coronavirus Is Spreading In Homeless Populations, Exposing The Failures Of Progressive Policies)