Midnight Mission Madness

Via the excellent Sploid comes this Christian Science Monitor tale of homelessness, L.A.-style:

Opening Monday and trumpeted proudly by city officials is the Midnight Mission–and one of the nation's plushest homeless shelters. The $17 million state-of-the-art facility boasts a full-sized gymnasium, library, playroom, hair salon, education center, and professional kitchen. The shelter is the city's latest effort to address one of its most visible and resistant social problems: the more than 6,000 people who live on the streets….

"That same $17 million could have gone a long way toward creating homes and jobs," says Bob Erlenbusch, vice president of the board for the National Coalition for the Homeless. "Affordable housing is what these people need, not a way to institutionalize their temporary status."

The new shelter boasts 500 beds. Whole thing here.

Reason's Mike Lynch toured L.A. mean streets during the 2000 Democratic National Convention here.