Sure shelters ARE prisons. By their very nature they almost have to be.

Consider this; why do you pay rent? Is it JUST needing a roof over your head? Is it not also the fact that AUTONOMY and having 24/7 ACCESS to all parts of what you paid for is ensured by the act of paying money? More to the point - it also means you have responsibility and accountability not to poop on the bathroom walls or come in drunk and keep everyone up at night.

These are the differences between honest rental agreements and charities. The question is, where exactly in between these two does the transitional housing side fall? Bud Clark commons is not like a missions as I hear it, but it has short time limits and very limited room - another pitfall of social services.

Many homeless just need options not help. Keeping this style infrastructure strictly in the form of missions in some ways actually favors the few bad apples as when a mission lets any random stranger in and they poop on the wall or sneak out at night to trade drugs then suddenly no one can be there during the day or leave at night once they are in. Consequently everyone elses options are to be in a prison like charity or pay what they obviously cannot afford for their very own privacy.