A point-in-time survey of Howard County's homeless population showed shrinking numbers for a third year in a row, according to a recent report.
The 2015 count, conducted on Jan. 26, found 166 homeless individuals living in the county. Last year's survey counted 170 homeless people.
The survey, which is held annually in communities across the nation, represents a snapshot of the number of people living in transitional and emergency shelters, as well as those who live without shelter -- outdoors or in a car -- on a single day.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development requires the survey as a pre-requisite for some grant funding.
Since 2012, the number of homeless individuals accounted for by the point-in-time survey has decreased by 27 percent, when the county identified a homeless population of 230 people. That same year, the Coordinated System of Homeless Services, which combines services from 13 different agencies to help support homeless people or people on the verge of homelessness, got its launch.
Howard County Executive Allan Kittleman attributed this year's decrease in the homeless population to the work of the county's nonprofits and government agencies.
"We are on track to make homelessness a brief and rare occurrence most of the time," he said in a statement.
Plans are in motion to break ground on 35 efficiency apartments to house some of the county's chronically homeless on Guilford Road in Jessup. Last week, the Planning Board approved plans for the apartments as well as for a new Day Resource Center, which offers showers, meals and doctor's visits, among other services, to the homeless community.