The number of homeless people in Alachua County has dropped by about 4 percent over the past year.
The Alachua County Coalition for the Homeless and Hungry counted 1,477 homeless people throughout the county during its annual count.
The number of homeless people identified as students in public schools has also decreased from 549 in 2015 to 525.
The coalition released a draft of the number of homeless people in Alachua County following the Point-In-Time survey conducted on January 29. Alachua County workers and homeless volunteers canvassed the areas of the county with high concentrations of homeless people to poll the population and ask about their living conditions.
The 2016 report does not include veterans who are receiving permanent housing from Veteran Affairs Support Housing. Previous reports did. As a result, numbers from previous years have been adjusted to reflect the change.
The annual homeless census for Alachua County is part of a national effort conducted by the U.S. Housing and Urban Development to assess homeless population numbers. The survey is done in the last 10 days of January when cold weather drives homeless people to shelters where they are more easily counted.