When
it comes to controlling alcoholism among the homeless, one Seattle
group is charting new territory. Last December, the Downtown Emergency
Services Center opened a highly controversial facility, known as 1811
Eastlake, in order to house seventy-five of the city’s most inebriated
homeless.
Taxpayers had grown weary of shelling out up to $50,000 a
year per
homeless citizen to pay for visits to the emergency room, jail, and
recovery facilities. So, the city decided to redirect some of its
funds—over $11 million to be exact—toward permanent housing for these
hard-core alcoholics.
But here’s the catch—residents are allowed to drink to their
heart’s
content! While 1811 does not discourage sobriety, it does not require
its residents to enroll in any sort of recovery program. Bill Hobson,
the program’s executive director, says that the community needs to face
the so-called “fact” that the most chronically intoxicated will likely
remain that way. Hobson offers an example of a resident who was drunk
ten minutes after spending sixty days in a detox facility. Referring to
the worst drunks like this, he says, “Once you’re an alcoholic, you’re
always an alcoholic.”
Well, the reasoning goes, if an alcoholic can’t change,
instead of
racking up taxpayer dollars to pay for jail cells and treatment, why
not fund less expensive housing? Just keep them off the streets.
It might be cheaper, but it’s also immoral. You see, the
idea that
people can’t change is the result of a naturalistic, deterministic
worldview. If people are truly the result of random evolution and their
environment, and only the fit can survive, then indeed, homeless drunks
don’t have a chance. Give them a bottle, wish them well, and just keep
them out of trouble.
But Christians know better. In thirty years of prison
ministry, I’ve
witnessed time and time again the transformation of the most
incorrigibly hardened criminals imaginable—drug addicts and alcoholics
among them. And believe me, it costs taxpayers far less to promote the
transformation of prisoners than to simply warehouse them and hope they
won’t return to a life of crime. That’s why six states have now
welcomed the InnerChange Freedom Initiative® (or IFI), a
faith-based
program launched by Prison Fellowship, which has proven to drastically
reduce recidivism among prisoners.
Ironically, as many of you know, a federal judge has ordered
the IFI
program in Iowa shut down, charging that it violates the separation of
church and state—this, while taxpayers in Washington state are
financing a homeless shelter that practically enables addictive
behavior all to save, so they say, a few dollars.
But so much more is at stake than taxpayer dollars. Hope is.
The
director of 1811 Eastlake says that we need to face the reality that
some people will never change. Well, he’s wrong. Any society that just
writes off a class of persons can someday put groups of people gently
to sleep. The Nazis proved that so.
As Christians, we know that hardened criminals can be
radically
transformed by the saving power of Jesus Christ. We don’t write off
anybody, including so-called “chronic inebriates.”
| For Further Reading and Information |
Zoe Sandvig, “A
Drunken Haven,” The Point,
17 October 2006.
Kim Moreland, “Redemption
for a Falling Down Drunk,” The
Point, 7 December 2006.
Mark Bergin, “Bunks
for Drunks,” World, 14
October 2006.
Sanjay Batt, “Quakers
Close down Homeless Camp on Their University District Property,” Seattle Times, 13 October 2006.
“Homeless
Alcoholics in Seattle Find a Home,” NPR, 19 July 2006.
Michelle Esteban, “Room,
Board, and Booze,” KOMO-TV, 31 August 2006.
Jessica Kowal, “Homeless
Alcoholics Get Place to Live, and Drink,” International Herald Tribune, 5
July 2006.
Visit the InnerChange
Freedom Initiative ruling page.
Mark Gauvreau Judge, “After
Alcoholics Anonymous: True Recovery is Not Impossible,” BreakPoint
Online, 5 March 2004.
Mark Gauvreau Judge, “Twelve
Steps to Man: Christianity and the Origins of Alcoholics Anonymous,”
BreakPoint Online, 15 November 2002.
Mark Gauvreau Judge, “Am I Really
Powerless?” Beliefnet.
