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The number of people homeless in the U.S. during one of the nation's worst recessions appears to have gone down, according to new federal data. But those numbers aren't an accurate picture of homelessness in Charlotte. In 2009, when recession unemployment rates were at their highest, the number of homeless people nationwide actually decreased 3 percent. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released the data yesterday in its annual report on homelessness. HUD Assistant Secretary Mercedes Marquez says many communities were lucky to have finished building new housing for homeless people just as the recession hit. "As the nearly 30 percent drop in chronic homelessness since 2006 shows, we know that the federal effort and efforts by our local partners can and has made a difference," says Marquez. That has not been the case in Charlotte, where the first major effort to build what's known as "permanent supportive housing" for chronically homeless people has yet to break ground. The Urban Ministry Center has spent two years patching together the funding and public support it needs to build an 80-unit complex called Moore Place. When complete, it will house some of the city's most vulnerable people living on the street. Meanwhile, Charlotte's homeless shelters remain overcrowded and the number of people who've been homeless longer than a year keeps growing. According to HUD, there are a total of 2,500 homeless people in Charlotte. "The HUD numbers substantially undercount the number of homeless persons and families in Charlotte Mecklenburg." Mecklenburg County Homeless Services director Peter Safir says the HUD numbers "substantially undercount" the number of homeless people in Charlotte-Mecklenburg. He says the figure is closer to 6,500. HUD's figure does not include the hundreds of homeless people who were in jail or at the hospital on the night of the city-wide headcount. Nor does it include the thousands of children and their parents who are doubled up with family and friends rather than staying in a homeless shelter. Assistant Secretary Marquez says HUD may not technically consider those families homeless, but they are a growing concern. She points to a recent study (by the Mortgage Bankers Association) that finds the recession has caused a five-fold increase in families doubling up to avoid becoming homeless. Marquez says programs to help those families are part of a new federal plan to end homelessness set for release next week.