How do you prevent a bergie from getting violent and suicidal, as well as keep the streets clean? Easy – pay them in booze.

At least, that’s what the dutch have done recently.

In Amsterdam, they’ve offerred their local hobos a deal: if they complete a certain amount of public service work (cleaning up parks, picking up trash, recycling) they are rewarded (at least in part) with beer.

The project is a collaboration between a company called Rainbow, as well as the Dutch government. For each day’s work the hobos are given food, some money and some beer.

The results have been phenomenal. Not only are Amsterdam’s public spaces getting cleaner, but hard-edged hobos have finally found something to keep them occupied. Rather than beg for food or spit at tourists – they now earn their way through life.

Floor van Bakkum of Jellinek, a prominent government-funded institute that works with substance abusers, says that:

There were successful similar projects in Amsterdam before. In dealing with heroin addicts for example, they were given free methadone and heroin.

Van Bakkum makes the point that not just any hobo can pitch up and apply for the program, it has to be ‘the right hobo’.

We are talking about chronic alcoholics with no chance of recovery, who systematically fall ‘off the wagon’ and create quite a bit of disturbance.

Janneke van Loo, the regional manager for Rainbow, runs a park-cleaning group in East Amsterdam.

Success is measured on different levels: There are less complaints about neighborhood nuisance at the city council and local police. People feel safer. The police call it a success. For us aid workers the success is determined on an individual level; it is quite an accomplishment to see them keep turning up three times a week at 9:00 a.m.

So how about it, Ms Zille? Or do you think this whole prohibition vibe is actually better?

[Source : The Daily Beast]