Amsterdam Alcoholics Paid in Booze to Clean City's Streets Under New Program
Amsterdam is once again drawing extra attention for a new program that pays alcoholics in beer for work they perform cleaning the city's streets.
For their efforts the workers receive 10 euros (around $13) and five cans of beer. The group of men are split in to two groups of about 10 and each group works three days a week. Days start at around 9:00 a.m. and end at around 3:30 p.m. with breakfast, lunch and beers provided.
"This group of chronic alcoholics was causing a nuisance in Amsterdam's Oosterpark: fights, noise, disagreeable comments to women," Gerrie Holterman, who heads the Rainbow Foundation project, told AFP.
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"The aim is to keep them occupied, to get them doing something so they no longer cause trouble at the park," Gerrie added.
The new program is funded by a combination money from the Dutch state and donations.
"I think I can speak for the group and say that if they didn't give us beers then we wouldn't come," said Frank, one of the men in the program. "We need alcohol to function, that's the disadvantage of chronic alcoholism," he added.
Creators of the program contend that it gives the men a job and keeps them from becoming a public nuisance.
"They're no longer in the park, they drink less, they eat better and they have something to keep them busy during the day … heroin addicts can go to shooting galleries, so why shouldn't we also give people beer?" she said.
Project participants also say they are happy to be there and are free to leave if they wish given that the program is on a volunteer basis.
"It gives our lives some structure," said one alcoholic who asked not to be named. "Lots of us haven't had any structure in our lives for years, we just don't know what it is, and so this is good for us," said Frank.
