Census of the homeless held

A member of patrol searching for homeless people in Łódź, central Poland. Photo: PAP/Grzegorz Michalowski

Social workers accompanied by police patrols are scouting for people who have no place to live in and often not much to sustain themselves.

As Slawek Szefs reports, the action is meant not only to collect data on the number of homeless but also to provide relevant institutions and organizations with information required to render effective help to those in need.

"Apart from helping out in the census, the policemen are monitoring whether conditions in which these homeless persons are found do not pose a serious threat to their health and even life," Inspector Jerzy Dlugosz, press officer for the police department in the eastern town of Siedlce, told Polish Radio.