Wet Shelters - Canada

Traditionally, homeless shelters ban alcohol. in canada in 1997, as the result of an inquest into the deaths of two homeless alcoholics two years earlier, Toronto's Seaton house became the first homeless shelter in canada to operate a "wet shelter" on a "managed alcohol" principle in which clients are served a glass of wine once an hour until staff determine that they are too inebriated to continue. Previously, homeless alcoholics opted to stay on the street often seeking alcohol from unsafe sources such as mouthwash, rubbing alcohol or industrial products, which in turn resulted in frequent use of emergency medical facilities. the program has been duplicated in other Canadian cities and a study of Ottawa's "wet shelter" found that emergency room visit and police encounters by clients were cut by half. Researchers found that program participants cut their alcohol use from an average of 46 drinks a day when they entered the program to an average of 8 drinks.