Seventy-one-year-old Roger Oake sat on a bench outside the Union Gospel Mission shelter in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside after breakfast.

He had been sleeping at the shelter for about a month "this time" and said that after several years of homelessness, walking "the beat" during the day when the shelter isn't open has become harder as he gets older.

"I really don't know where to even begin. There's so many things that could or should change, but I really don't know," he said on Wednesday.

"We're people too, you know? We're not just bums, we're not just hobos looking for a handout. We are what we are and we're at where we're at — and that's basically where it's at."

In major cities across the country, those who provide shelter and services for people who are homeless say they are seein

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