Don’t expect much. They give “no strings attached” housing in SF and not only does it not help people get off drugs, it results in millions of dollars a year in expenses to pay for damages caused by the newly housed.
I have been on the streets and an an opioid addict in medication assisted treatment. I have yet to meet a single addict who returned to normalcy without taking some stock of the damage they’ve caused and making amends to change their life. People who are given unearned housing with no restrictions continue to live their life in a way that harms not only themselves, but those around them.
There’s a reason that the only countries where safe supply/legalization have worked (Portugal, Estonia, Switzerland, etc) continued to attack drug markets and sellers and set expectations around public assistance and behaviour from those receiving it. You cannot just give an addict a home and drugs and suddenly expect them to become upstanding, contributing members of society.
(I won’t even delve into how the current California/West Coast paradigm is exceptionally dehumanizing as it presumes these people are only able to do one thing - consume money and drugs.)
I have been on the streets and an an opioid addict in medication assisted treatment. I have yet to meet a single addict who returned to normalcy without taking some stock of the damage they’ve caused and making amends to change their life. People who are given unearned housing with no restrictions continue to live their life in a way that harms not only themselves, but those around them.
There’s a reason that the only countries where safe supply/legalization have worked (Portugal, Estonia, Switzerland, etc) continued to attack drug markets and sellers and set expectations around public assistance and behaviour from those receiving it. You cannot just give an addict a home and drugs and suddenly expect them to become upstanding, contributing members of society.
(I won’t even delve into how the current California/West Coast paradigm is exceptionally dehumanizing as it presumes these people are only able to do one thing - consume money and drugs.)