SUP. GAVIN Newsom issued yet another "tough love" proposal designed to save homeless people from themselves last week – and this may be his most cruel and counterproductive idea yet. Instead of giving homeless general-assistance recipients a $320 cash grant – which they might spend on drugs and alcohol – Newsom wants to cut the grant to $50 and replace the rest with vouchers for shelter and food.

The first problem, of course, is that housing vouchers are no good if there's no affordable housing available. Then there's the issue of basic human dignity: what if a homeless person has the audacity to want to buy a tube of toothpaste or some food or a shirt and can't find, or get to, a store that takes vouchers?

And then there's the obvious, practical concern: if drug addicts and alcoholics want a fix and have no cash to get it, they're far more likely to aggressively panhandle or resort to crime.

One of the most telling pieces of his proposed law is technical. Instead of referring to benefits to which a recipient is "entitled," Newsom suggests changing it to benefits for which a recipient is "eligible." That kind of language could be used to create even higher barriers to the limited benefits that are available. (And let's not forget that G.A. isn't a "handout" anyway – these days, everyone who receives it is required to work.)

Ironically, Newsom unveiled his plan at Next Door, one of the city's largest shelters. He was quickly shouted down by critics who accused him of making their already tough lives even harder in an effort to promote his own political career (see "Buddy Can You Spare a Vote?," 1/16/02). Although the San Francisco Chronicle reported Feb. 8 that police were called to "protect Newsom from upset advocates," that's not how it looked to us. After suggesting that the crowd join him at City Hall to discuss the proposal, Newsom kept stopping along the way to smile at TV cameras and offer sound bites to reporters. When he grew tired of his critics, he scurried into a police car waiting nearby.