Alcoholics in Amsterdam paid in beer and cigarettes to clean streets

Alcoholics in Amsterdam are being paid in beer and cigarettes to clean the streets.

The homeless workers are given two cans in the morning, two at lunchtime and one at the end of the day in exchange for sweeping the streets in the Dutch city as well as $10 and half a packet of rolling tobacco.

While the idea to give the sweepers beer and cigarettes has come under fire from some locals, Gerrie Holterman, who heads up the Rainbow Foundation – which came up with the idea – has defended the project.

She said: "This group of chronic alcoholics was causing a nuisance in Amsterdam’s Oosterpark: fights, noise, disagreeable comments to women."