The homeless deserve more than money

Ask how many homeless cats are in Beijing and you will get an answer of between 500,000 and 5 million. But ask how many homeless people there are in Beijing and it seems the only answer is "we don't know".

I attended a seminar on saving stray cats in Beijing months ago along with people from 50 NGOs and experts in this field. They all showed their concerns. But when it comes to homeless people, I cannot find anywhere near the same number of NGOs or volunteer organizations in Beijing.

I am working on a story about the number of beggars and homeless people in Beijing and I am finding this lack of statistics rather frustrating. I called several officials but all said they don't have an answer, not even a rough guess.