Putting families with children in barracks-style shelters was outlawed more than a decade ago, and for good reasons.

Each of the barracks-style shelters can hold about 900 men.

About the only part of the bill that most advocates seemed to support unequivocally was a provision to end the barracks-style shelters for families.

But the general outline drew cautious praise from some advocates who for years have wanted the large, barracks-style shelters closed.

He noted that city policy bans using barracks-style shelters for homeless families.

The rest of the families are in welfare hotels, or barracks-style shelters.

Even after the city gets out of hotels, they noted, there will still be hundreds of men women and children in barracks-style shelters.

The suit is the latest in numerous attempts by advocates for the homeless to force the city to deal with problems at its barracks-style shelters.

The report on families calls for an end to the use of welfare hotels and barracks-style communal shelters by June 1992.

The city houses 2,609 in 41 welfare hotels and 448 in five barracks-style shelters.