Large Los Angeles homeless shelter now charging $7 per night

[Liberal_in_LA]

Skid Row shelter charges fees as economy toughens

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Skid Row resident Dadisi Komolafe points indignantly to the sign reading "Union Rescue Mission," and grumbles that the name no longer fits since the shelter started charging for a nightly stay.

"They should change it to 'Union Hotel'," said the nearly toothless jazz musician, who sleeps on the street. "If you have to pay to stay there, it's not a mission. A lot of people are getting turned away."

For decades, four missions have given out "three hots and a cot" for free in downtown Los Angeles' Skid Row, where 4,000 down-on-their-luck people cram a 50-block area to form the nation's densest concentration of homeless people. The overflow from the shelters — nearly 1,000 people — spills nightly onto urine-stained sidewalks in a bedlam of tents, cardboard boxes and sleeping bags.

Two months ago, Union Rescue started charging $7 for an overnight stay, and cut its three free meals a day to one.

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"We've increased our sustainability, but we really think people are feeling better about themselves if they're not just taking handouts," Bales said.

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