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Last week, a special census was conducted by paid homeless workers and volunteers to determine the number of homeless persons in Los Angeles County. Though many homeless advocates note that determining the exact numbers of a homeless population is difficult due to their temporary circumstances, the county census is essential to preserving $60 million in federal funds to combat homelessness. A 2005 census which measured the homeless population of Los Angeles County at 90,000 led many to call the city of Los Angeles the homeless capital of the United States. Meanwhile, since the implementation of LA’s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Safer Cities,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d initiative in August 2006, the LAPD has made nearly five-thousand arrests at Downtown’s Skid Row. Homeless advocates are suspicious that the Safer Cities initiative is really intended to clear the homeless population in order to make way for new development, and have criticized the arrests. However, police say the plan is aimed at drug dealers and making Skid Row safer. <\/p>\n![\"LA](\"http:\/\/newsimg.bbc.co.uk\/media\/images\/40559000\/jpg\/_40559333_ushomeless-afp203.jpg\")
GUEST: Becky Dennison, Co-Director of the Los Angeles Community Action Network<\/em><\/p>\n