Big Apple

I just recently came back from a trip to the NYC. This is my 3rd time there and each time I am always surprised at the differences between our cities. I have traveled to many other large cities in the world and nothing really compares to the lack of respect towards human beings that we have here in Vancouver.
I went on outreach with some outreach workers there in NYC. They were two awesome guys who have been dong this job for 10 and 22 years. I was thinking wow here I am in NYC I will see some very interesting things. I did, but not the way I thought!!! They took me to the Bronx (which is supposed to be the toughest area) Queens, and Harleem we drove around for a couple of hours and saw only a handful of people who i could have used our services. I believe street life is street life and each person experience is their own and I cannot say that it is good or bad. But what I can say is that we have an unfair system here in Vancouver. The question that I ask my outreach tour guides was this “
Where do people sleep? The answer was this “inside”, now yes NYC is freaking cold in the winter so I understand that really people should not be outside but with that being said the outreach workers also stated that people are inside all year round. I shared with them some of the issues, struggles that I have seen people go through here in Vancouver. They were taken aback at the amount of young people that we see everyday.
He stated that when he stated as an outreach worker 22 years ago there were 14 other outreach workers now there are 3 working with him. That’s a big jump. He said that they mostly work with the young women in the sex trade and even that has slowed down significantly ( the visiblity of it has slowed down)
So I have to ask why is there a debate here? What should be done? I don’t know that answer to that. I think that everyone deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, so why is that so hard for the people/ government/ services providers to see this. Why do we have a homeless count when it is so obvious to the naked eye here? NYC is the one of the most expensive places to live so who help those who cannot afford rent there? Someone does!!! They don’t have an annual homeless count there. We live in CANADA so why do people have to sleep outside or bug run down hotels. Why do they have be so disrespected on the phones when they person on the other ends says, “Oh I am sorry it’s rented” as soon as they here the word “ Welfare” It shouldn’t! Be this difficult!! If NYC can house people why can't we?