“This has been the best experience thus far. It’s the safest and cleanest environment, and now I’m able to really work on myself.”

This is a direct quote from a man named Gary Noakes, a 43-year-old, recovering fentanyl and methamphetamine addict, who was offered a room in San Francisco’s sober homeless shelter.

Yes, it is almost inconceivable that San Francisco has opened a shelter of this nature to begin with, and, at the same time, that it took so long to have started one.

In a new initiative, the Salvation Army recently opened Hope House, a 58-bed, strictly sober homeless shelter under a two-year, $8.1 million contract with the city of San Francisco, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Sept. 10. A first for the liberal city that has been plagued by homelessness, drug addiction, and crime, the facility has a zero-tolerance policy regarding drugs and alcohol. (Subscribe to MR. RIGHT, a free weekly newsletter about modern masculinity)

“The original strategy throughout the city was just to get people off the streets, and this sets the bar a little bit higher,” Steve Adami of the Salvation Army told the outlet. “What we’re trying to do is create a structured environment that gets people to show up and start practicing how to emulate real life.”

The shelter includes single- and double-occupancy rooms, communal areas, and a dining hall. Residents must meet with their case managers twice a week and participate in at least two daily activities, which include life skill classes, walks, and recovery group meetings. Staff are also required to conduct random drug screenings. Anyone who fails a drug test will be immediately moved to a new homeless shelter.

A homeless person lies against a mural of the Golden Gate Bridge near APEC Summit headquarters on November 11, 2023 in downtown San Francisco, California. The city took steps to clean up in advance of the APEC Summit, currently taking place through November 17. (Photo by LOREN ELLIOTT/AFP via Getty Images)

Compared to other shelters across the city — which, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, emphasize immediate access to housing rather than addiction treatment or long-term help to prepare homeless addicts for an independent, stable life — Hope House stands out as a shining example. And it may finally help the city’s government, led by Democratic Mayor Mayor Daniel Lurie, to make a more lasting impact on the homeless.

In August, Lurie’s administration announced that the city and California Department of Transportation inked a deal allowing local officials to clear homeless camps along state highway properties within the city’s limits, particularly from critical thoroughfares such as U.S. 101 and Interstate 80. Other blue cities, including Los Angeles and Atlanta, are taking similar steps to clean up their streets. (RELATED: Even Liberal Cities Are Cleaning Up Their Streets As Media, Democrats Complain About Trump)

Something of note: In 2014, the Dutch government created a program for alcoholics in which they would be paid in beer — yes, beer — for helping clean up Amsterdam’s streets. Employees would get five daily beers, in addition to $13, rolling tobacco, and lunch. The program actually worked, probably because the people, though they were still given beer, were also given a purpose and a job that gave them structure.

In the case of San Francisco, handing people drugs in exchange for labor would likely lead to disastrous outcomes. Simply put, a Dutch alcoholic is not the same kind of person as a San Francisco fentanyl and meth addict who has been holed up in a tent shack for years. One is more docile; the other has probably fried their brain beyond repair.

Yet, with the new Hope House, the shift from simply giving the homeless an indoor space to do drugs to a sober environment where they have more purpose and accountability is a welcome one, if a bit late, for a city like San Francisco.