Chronic drunks' treatment costs S.F. big bucks

[Liberal_in_LA]

Chronic drunks' treatment costs S.F. big bucks

C.W. Nevius

Saturday, August 22, 2009

San Francisco has paid at least $150,000 for Kenny Walters in the past year. He isn't employed, has an arrest record as long as his hair, and can often be found passed out in a doorway on Haight Street.

Kenny Walters' job is to get drunk.

He's certainly not alone. "Chronic inebriants" are a grim and disturbing fact of life in San Francisco. They also cost the city millions.

Happy camper

Walters, who was decked out in a red, long-sleeve Spider-Man shirt, isn't homeless or broke. The 41-year-old happily shared his story with me. He sat up, pushed his blond bangs off his face, and blinked his striking blue eyes until his surroundings came into focus.

"I do get caught for drinking out here every day," he said affably. "I wish I had another beer right now."

He said he gets $953 a month in Supplemental Security Income for disabled and aged citizens and pays $650 a month for a hotel room in the Tenderloin under the city's Care Not Cash program.

With free meals available from local charities, that leaves $300 a month for booze. Walters says he doesn't do hard drugs, just pot. He just drinks, usually "40 ouncers," big, cheap bottles of beer.

"He probably gets picked up two or three times a week," said Andrews, who pointed to two plastic hospital bands Walters had on his wrist from previous visits. "I've seen him with four or five hospital bands at a time."

Too drunk to walk

Walters is usually too intoxicated to walk, which makes him ineligible for a sobering center. But regardless of where he goes, Walter's isn't bothered about the expense.

"Doesn't cost me a thing," he said cheerfully.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/22/BA3519BTV8.DTL&tsp=1#ixzz0OwlwtbKT

[SoCalDem]

1. Maybe it's time to start up some rehab facilities

and a way to commit these people to them..at least to keep them off the streets and safe..and who knows?..maybe even to get them sober? It's got to be cheaper than to run them to hospitals all the time.. That's a terrible waste of time for the hospital workers too..

[lame54]

2. why don't they stop arresting him

[SoCalDem]

5. public drunkenness is against the law, and people call the cops

if they refused to show up, they'd get in trouble.. it's a catch-22

the guy needs to be "secured" somewhere, but laws don't allow for that either..

[Hippo_Tron]

8. They could say that they have higher priorities

[TexasObserver]

3. Recommend

[msongs]

4. city needs to stop enabling and leave hjm to his chosen fate lol

[Iggo]

6. Oops. Shoulda read it first.

[Warpy]

7. Passing out in a doorway is public and obnoxious

I've had to step over a lot of them in my day.

If he chose a nice quiet alley, there would be little problem. No one complains about a snoring drunk in an alley.

Trying to save adults from themselves is a lucrative industry and usually a failure unless those adults can be incarcerated for a long period of time with mandatory treatment. Even then, it fails more often than it works.

Alcoholism is a disease and some people are going to die from it. I'm sure he's been informed of that fact more than once and knows what he's doing.

This man isn't really causing problems except by his poor choice of places to sleep it off. It's cruel to drag him off the street, dry him out, and then return him to the same place he left.

It might be kinder to park him in a less conspicuous place and just let him finish the job of living the way he chooses.

If he ever asks for help, he should get it.

[Ex Lurker]

9. Stuff like this is why Newsom will never be elected CA governor or any other higher office

people outside SF think it's a lunatic asylum.