DOTHAN, Ala. (WDHN) — Volunteers from around the Circle City gathered downtown for the yearly “Point in Time Count.”

The U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development asks communities across the nation to count the homeless, those without a physical address at a particular point in time.

The count greatly affects funding, both private and public, for homeless services and affects the methodology of those services.

This year volunteers gathered at The Harbor to prepare to break up into groups and count people living in homelessness throughout the area.

With the overall goal of putting an end to homelessness in the Circle City and across the nation.

It helps identify and grow in relationships with some that are living in homelessness so that we can help navigate out of that,” Executive Director of The Harbor, Kody Kirchhoff said. “It also gives us the trends of whether it is rising, or is it decreasing.”

Officials who were in charge of the count believe that the trend of homelessness is down as to previous years and people are moving out of the downtown area and becoming harder to find.

The group was also able to get in contact with communities in Dale, Geneva, and Coffee counties to assist them with their counts.