A state-wide count of homeless people is being held tonight.

In Hartford, Community Renewal Team Research Director Krista Heybruck-Santiago said she is always struck by the number of single men who choose to remain outdoors.

“I am also struck by their ability to be out on such cold evenings, and [how they] want to maintain that independent lifestyle, for whatever reason,” Heybruck-Santiago said.

In Hartford, the annual count usually finds between sixteen and twenty-five people living outside.

The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development says statewide, the number of homeless people identified by the point-in-time count dropped six percent last year.

HUD says the data is used by local officials to determine the number of homeless people, and the characteristics of the homeless population, so they can be better served.