Housing advocates are praising the city of Chicago for supporting a single-room-occupancy project on the South Side. But some say Mayor Richard Daley’s administration should go further against homelessness.

The city invested nearly $900,000 into a $10.6 million conversion of a former YMCA near Washington Park. The building’s 63 units are for people who’ve been homeless or lived in public housing. An on-site case manager links the tenants to social services.

Ed Shurna of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless applauds the project and says the city should do more along those lines.

SHURNA: If you compare Chicago, per capita, to New York, San Francisco and other major cities, we’re not putting enough of our capital dollars into affordable housing. We’re helping up-scale housing get built at a faster rate.

Estimates of Chicago’s homeless population range from 6,000 to 21,000. Shurna predicts the city’s plan to end homelessness by 2013 will fall short.