Seattle's Harm Reduction Approach for Chronic Alcoholics

The New York Times ran an interesting piece Wednesday on Seattle's experiment with a public housing development, 1811 Eastlake, that gives chronic, homeless alcoholics both a place to live and the freedom to drink in their rooms if they choose.

The blog Rehabology has a good discussion of the pros and cons of this approach, which is (needless to say) controversial.

From my point of view, the bottom line is apparent from two anecdotal pieces of information reported in the NYT piece: 1)housing people at 1811 Eastlake is cheaper than housing them in jail, and 2)the people in 1811 Eastlake drink less than they would otherwise: "the alcohol intake of the residents was shockingly high at first, but many residents say they now drink less, at least by their standards. 'I cut down,' [one resident] said. 'I've got to save my liver.'"

This harm reduction approach to dealing with chronic alcoholism is somewhat like the provision of "safe injection facilities" to heroin users in countries such as Switzerland. There, as the state has provided clean, non-criminalized facilities for people to take heroin, the number of new users has dropped dramatically and the public perception of heroin use has changed, with people beginning to view heroin as a "loser" drug rather than as something particularly chic. As Rehabology notes, some people are morally outraged by these types of projects. But the ostensibly morally superior alternatives are often more expensive and less effective at protecting public health.