WASHINGTON — The number of homeless people in the United States declined for a third straight year, helped by sharp dropoffs in veterans and chronic homelessness, according to a government survey released Thursday.
More than 610,000 people were homeless at the time of the count, on a single night in the last week of January. That was down from 633,782, a 4 percent drop from the previous year, according to the survey by the Housing and Urban Development Department. The study counted people in 3,000 cities and counties.
The number of homeless veterans stood at 57,849, down nearly 5,000, an 8 percent drop from the previous year. The number of chronically homeless people declined 7 percent to 92,593.
Nearly two-thirds of those experiencing homelessness were living in emergency shelters or transitional housing programs, while the remainder lived under bridges, in cars, or in abandoned buildings, the survey found.
Five states — California, New York, Florida, Texas, and Massachusetts — accounted for more than half of the homeless population.