When next step was first built it had no laundry. We brought in Laundry machines later. First the electric, plumbing and hot water had to be upgraded to handle it. Main priority was get the place open so people had a stable to rest at night and not keep getting tickets and fines for sleeping.  This facility looks modeled after next step.  If you build walls then you also kill the air circulation, and would need to spend even more to keep the place cooler. Also, consider that you are fully comfortable in a box (walls) many of the people moving in have been living on the street a while and some are seriously not comfortable being enclosed in a box. Same, when next step first opened up, we had residents move in and then could not sleep in their cubicles, and instead slept in the parking lot next to the doors for a while, or slept in the larger more open common spaces of the shelter. Privacy was the least of their concerns, they were now claustrophobic.