She said a "harm reduction approach" makes sense only when there is no real hope an alcoholic can be cured.
"The Rainbow group tries to make it as easy as possible (for alcoholics) to live their lives and that they make as little as possible nuisances to the environment they are living in," she said. "I think it is good that they are doing this."
Amsterdam has a storied history of pragmatic solutions to social problems - ideas that often seemed immoral at the time. Prostitution, now fully legal, has been tolerated here since the 1600s, when the city was a major port. Authorities designated a Red Light District where sailors could look for sex. Marijuana use has been tolerated since the 1970s, when people realized street dealers were the main source of problems and authorities allowed weed instead to be sold in designated "coffee shops" while police looked the other way. In the 1980s and 1990s, health care charities distributed free clean needles for heroin addicts to prevent the spread of HIV.
This time, the idea was simply that troublemakers might consume less and cause less trouble if they could be lured away from their park benches with the promise of free booze. Rainbow leader Gerrie Holterman said beer was the obvious choice, because it's easier to regulate consumption. Rainbow still harbors the ambition to cure alcoholics and move them back to mainstream society and sees the work-for-beer program as a first step.
"I think now that we are only successful when we get them to drink less during the day and give them something to think about what they want to do with their lives," Holterman said. "This is a start to go toward other projects and maybe another kind of job."
She conceded there has only been one individual so far who has moved from the program to regular life. Numerous participants have found the rules too demanding and dropped out. But she said nuisance in the park has been reduced, neighbors are happy and there's a waiting list of candidates who want to participate.
Elatik said she couldn't quantify the cost of the current program - its budget comes partly from donations to Rainbow, partly from city funds - but it's definitely less than 100,000 euros ($130,000).
The men who participate are a lively bunch. Many are obviously buzzed at midday, and perhaps not highly effective at picking up trash, but jovial. Some say they aren't alcoholics, just heavy drinkers.
The foreman of one group, Fred Schiphorst, takes his job seriously. He wears a suit and tie under his reflective vest, which he says shows he takes the work seriously. He says he is treated with more respect in the neighborhood. But he admits his off-the-job drinking is still up and down.
One introspective program participant is Karel Slinger, 50. He says frankly that his life hasn't been transformed by the program. He's still an alcoholic. But he says on the whole, things have changed for the better.
"Yes, of course in the park it is nice weather and you just drink a lot of beer," he said of his old life. "Now you come here and you are occupied and you have something to do. I can't just sit still. I want something to do."
