The number of people experiencing homelessness in D.C. is down 5.5 percent from last year, according to the city’s annual census of its homeless population. It’s the third year in a row that the District has seen declines after recording the largest per-capita increase in the homeless population in the country in 2016.

“It is definitely an indicator that the strategies and the investments that we’ve made … to end homelessness among families are working,” said Department of Human Services Director Laura Zeilinger. “We will continue to stay the course on those new reforms as we open the rest of the new short-term housing and continue in the reforms to the family system.”

But while the count marks a drop in homeless families, the number of single individuals experiencing homelessness increased over last year.

The data is based on the annual point-in-time survey, when volunteers spread out across the region to speak with people staying on the street, in shelters, and temporary housing. It is the first time that the total number of people experiencing homelessness in the D.C. region has ever fallen below 10,000 people, according to the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. Every jurisdiction in the area saw declines except Loudoun and Fairfax counties. Montgomery and Prince William counties saw the largest percentage drop, while D.C. saw the biggest total reduction.

In the District, the study found that 6,521 people were experiencing homelessness on the night of January 23, 2019, a decrease of 383 people from the year before.

That decrease can be attributed to a sharp drop—15.6 percent—in the number of homeless families. It reflects the city’s concerted effort to reduce family homelessness, which has been a major priority after the disappearance of 8-year-old Relisha Rudd from the family shelter at D.C. General in 2014.

In the year since the last point-in-time count, the city finally closed the dilapidated shelter and began replacing it with smaller shelters in six wards across the city. But only three of the replacement shelters are complete. There are still more than 300 families staying in motels that the city has contracted with to provide short-term shelter (at a cost of about $3,000 a month per family). The District is planning to phase out the use of such overflow motels by the end of 2020.

“We are not drawing a line in the sand on the date, because we have been committed to serving families at the time that they need it,” Zeilinger said. But “year-over-year, double-digit percentage decreases in family homelessness give us confidence that we can foresee getting to the point where we will not need to rely on hotels as overflow.”

The District’s drop in family homelessness was accompanied by a 13.3 percent decrease in the number of chronically homeless single adults (which is defined as experiencing homelessness for at least one year or four times over the past three years and having a mental or physical disability). Since adopting a “housing first” strategy in 2008, the city has made significant progress in reducing chronic homelessness. In fact, the 1,375 individuals who were experiencing chronic homelessness during the 2019 point-in-time count represents the lowest number in the past 15 years (it should be noted though, that the number of families experience chronic homelessness nearly doubled, from 55 to 98, over the past year).

“D.C. knows how to end chronic homelessness,” says Jesse Rabinowitz, an advocacy and campaign manager with Miriam’s Kitchen, and those numbers “should propel us to do more and work harder.”

He and other advocates with The Way Home Campaign have repeatedly called on the city to invest more in long-term housing for homeless individuals. The coalition of social justice organizations is currently advocating for the D.C. Council to add more than $20 million to the budget for permanent supportive housing and outreach services.

Despite the progress in reducing family and chronic homelessness, the count found a 2.8 percent overall increase in the number of unaccompanied homeless individuals in D.C.’s shelters and streets—a reflection of the city’s ongoing affordable housing crisis.

“It really comes down to economics,” Zeilinger said. “People living in poverty are least likely to be in a job that is paying a housing wage, are increasingly priced out of the market in our community, and that really becomes a driver.”

She also acknowledges that the city’s system for addressing the needs of homeless individuals is “much more fragmented” than the system for families. The city has a central intake office for homeless families on Rhode Island Avenue NE—a single point of entry where families can go to get assistance and emergency housing. “On the single side, it takes a lot more networking,” Zeilinger said, adding that DHS is increasing resources to address the needs of unaccompanied adults. In addition to funding for renovations of two shelters—a men’s shelter and a women’s shelter—Mayor Muriel Bowser’s proposed budget for 2020 includes an additional $8.8 million for new housing resources for unaccompanied adults.

It’s worth noting that the point-in-time count only offers a snapshot of homelessness, and advocates have taken issue with it as the sole measure of homelessness in the city.

The count was created in the early 1980s (national standards were put in place in 2005) with the goal of capturing an annual, comparable count of the homeless population. Volunteers fan out during a single night in January around the country.

The idea is that in the heart of winter, more folks will seek come inside and seek shelter (D.C. is legally mandated to guarantee shelter on freezing nights), and will therefore be easier to find. But that creates fluctuations during unusual weather years, and doesn’t take into account people waiting out winter nights in cars or on friends and relatives’ couches. There’s also some evidence from school data that there’s a larger number of homeless children than what is reflected in the point-in-time data.

This story originally appeared on WAMU.