Seattle shelter for street alcoholics let's them keep drinking
Most shelters for street alcoholics requires them to give up the bottle to get a place to sleep.
But a 75-unit apartment building run by the Downtown Emergency Service Center in Seattle is trying a different approach. It lets residents drink in their rooms. The goal is to give residents some stability and break a cycle of repeated trips to jail and emergency rooms at taxpayer expense.
The "National Alliance to End Homelessness" says associated groups and government agencies across the country are watching the Seattle experiment.
A study of the effectiveness of the housing is expected by later summer or fall. Some neighbors oppose the spending. It costs about $15,000 a year in King County, state and federal money for each resident.
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