If the economy is improving, then why are 17,000 kids homeless in New York?

In a booming holiday season, the nation's most populous city reported Saturday that almost 17,000 homeless children and their parents live in city shelters -- twice as many families as in the 1990s.

On the other coast, we're glad to learn that Gavin Newsom, the newly elected San Francisco mayor, has declared his top priority will be solving the city's homelessness problem:

...his first moves will include creating a 10-year plan for ending chronic homelessness and going after "tens of millions" of new dollars in federal funding....In an interview with The Chronicle, Newsom said he also plans to create within six months about 550 units of new "supportive housing" for troubled homeless people.

The centerpiece of any plan, he said, will be creating more supportive housing, which gives the homeless a room to live in with counseling services in the same building to address the drug, alcohol or mental health problems that often put them on the street.