As freezing weather envelopes Poland, social workers have began a count of the nation’s homeless.

As temperatures plunge, the shelters are gradually filling up. According to official statistics, an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 people in Poland are homeless. But NGOs say this is just the tip of the iceberg, suggesting that there may be even up to 300,000 Poles who have no home.

The most comprehensive count of the homeless has been conducted in the past few years in the north-western Pomerania province. In 2007 they counted 2200 people without a home in the region.

This year an army of 400 social and street workers, city guards, policemen and volunteers inspected homeless shelters as well as railway and bus stations, allotment gardens, cellars and squats – all places where the homeless could possibly stay.

But the fact is that knowledge about those without a roof over their head is poor in Poland. “There are no such studies conducted in Poland. There may be two or three in Europe,” sociologist Maciej Debski told Radio TokFm. (kk/pg)