(The Center Square) – More than 700 veterans are estimated homeless among 7,200 total in North Carolina, the annual federal homelessness report says.

The state’s change in the assessment of 2023 is 4% from 2022, and minus-17.4% from 2007. The analysis says 9 in 10,000 are experiencing sheltered homelessness.

The 2023 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report is conducted by the Office of Community Planning and Development within the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. It is provided to Congress and is generally referred to as the Point In Time count. Key metrics are housing inventory count; national, state and continuums of care counts and estimates of homelessness; and estimates of homeless people, veterans, children and youth.

Through volunteers across the country, a single night is measured. The night chosen was in December and found 653,100 – 20 in 10,000 – were experiencing homelessness throughout the country. That’s up 12%.

“Experiencing homelessness” for definition in this report is “a person who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence.” “Individual experiencing chronic homelessness” means a person with a disability who has been continuously experiencing homelessness for one year or more, or “has experienced four episodes of homelessness in the last three years where the combined length of time experiencing homelessness on those occasions is at least 12 months.”

“Unsheltered homelessness” refers to those whose “primary nighttime location is a public or private place not designated for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping accommodation.” Examples are streets, vehicles and parks. “Sheltered homelessness” is people staying in emergency shelters, transitional housing programs or safe havens.

The report had total homelessness for the state at 9,754, with 64.7% (6,311) sheltered.

Other estimates were 2,554 people in families with children; 491 unaccompanied homeless youth; and 1,678 chronically homeless individuals.