Study: Housing Helps Street Alcoholics Drink Less

From the Associated Press

An innovative program that takes homeless alcoholics off the street and gives them a place to live without requiring them to quit drinking has led residents to dramatically decrease their drinking as well as ease problems related to their addiction, new research has found.

The study found residents of the Seattle apartment building cut their heavy drinking by 35 percent and their everyday drinking by about 50 percent during their first two years in the building. They also had fewer instances of delirium tremens, a life-threatening form of alcohol withdrawal.

Researchers found the 95 formerly homeless men and women decreased the number of drinks they consumed on their heaviest drinking days from 40 to 26 over two years. The median number of drinks dropped from 22 to 11 drinks during a typical drinking day.

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