Salvation Army ends longstanding no drink policy

Policy in place for decades pulled after discussions with police, hospitals

No more breath test needed to stay the night at the Salvation Army in La Crosse.

The long-time policy of requiring a breathalyzer test at the 8th St. shelter has been lifted.

Organization spokesman Nick Ragner said the organization will still evaluate those who come to the shelter and have been drinking and will allow them in “if they come in and don’t seem like they’re going to be doing harm to others or to themselves. We can still breathalyze somebody if they do come in and it seems necessary to do so.”

The policy originally was put in place with concerns that someone with any alcohol in their system might be a danger to children at the shelter.

Ragner says La Crosse is one of the last Salvation Army branches in this region to drop the breathalyzer test.

The new policy was quietly put into place right after Thanksgiving.

It replaced a policy that would have the organization turning away those who blew anything above a 0.00 on the breathalyzer.

Previously only the Catholic Charities-operated Warming Center allowed those who had been drinking to take shelter from the cold.