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Wet and Dry Services
This briefing is about wet and dry services for homeless people, with good practice information and examples. Wet services allow service users to drink alcohol, including on the premises. Dry services do not allow service users to drink on the premises or allow access to people who have recently consumed alcohol. Between the two "damp" services do not allow consumption on the premises but are less strict about recent consumption. This briefing describes the various types of service and their pros and cons but does not offer any judgement as to which is most effective or appropriate.
About wet services
Providers of wet services take the view that is better to allow service users who use alcohol to do so rather than exclude them altogether. It is arguable that wet services reach more people but are more difficult to run and sell to local communities.
Wet hostels
Wet hostels are hostels where residents are allowed to drink alcohol on the premises.
English Churches Housing Group's (ECHG) Centenary House hostel in Derby has an award-winning 6-bed wet unit.
Hopkinson House in London is a 36 bed wet hostel with designated drinking areas, but other areas are dry. There is also an in-house detox for residents who wish to become alcohol free during their stay.
Providence Row Charity has produced guidance on effective keyworking in wet hostels.
ECHG's Vaughan House hostel in Guildford has an in-house detoxification facility which residents can access and are supported by their keyworker during their stay.
Wet day centres
Wet day centres provide support and meaningful activity for people who are reluctant or unable to give up drinking, including street drinkers and homeless people.
An increasing number of local authorities are designating part or all of their boroughs as controlled drinking zones (CDZ). This means that people who are drinking on the street can have their alcohol confiscated or poured away by street wardens or police officers. In general this would not be applied to people drinking outside of pubs but is aimed at those whose behaviour may be considered anti-social. Some local authorities who have established controlled drinking zones have also funded wet provision.
There has been much debate concerning controlled drinking zones and their punitive nature. Most street drinkers are not rough sleepers but are housed. However they use the street because they cannot or do not want to go to pubs and their colleagues in the drinking school could cause them to lose their accommodation should they use it as a venue in which to drink. There is a possibility that with the increased use of CDZs there maybe a number of people, whose lives are organised by their use of alcohol, such that their tenacies may be at risk by their inability to drink away from their property.
The Old Steine in Brighton is a day centre providing services for street drinkers.
The Booth Centre in Manchester has a wet garden the aim of which is to tackle the social exclusion, boredom and low self esteem that street drinkers experience, by involving them in the practical work of creating and maintaining a pleasant garden.
In 2003, the Kings Fund published a report and manual on Wet Day Centres, along with a summary. It includes the Booth Centre's wet garden.
About dry services
Services that ban alcohol consumption by service users do so either to avoid the problems associatied with it or to allow homeless people who have problems with alcohol dependency to live in an environment that is alcohol free - or both.
Dry hostels
Turning Point has a number of detoxification and rehabilitation projects, as well as dry and damp hostels.