(KRON) -- Alameda County conducted its homeless count in January. KRON4 reported the numbers from that count this summer, but this week, county officials released a full report. The point-in-time count in Alameda County this year showed that overall homeless is down 3 percent, and the number of unsheltered people has gone down 11 percent. It takes several months for county officials to find out why those numbers exist. Unsheltered homelessness, per Alameda County, is defined as "an individual or family with a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not designed for or ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings, including a car, park, abandoned building, bus or train stations, airport, or camping ground." The decrease in homelessness in Alameda County this year was the first decrease there in a decade. Farmers Insurance to expand home insurance coverage in California Jonathan Russell is the director of Housing and Homelessness Services for the county. He says nearly a year later officials are able to put out a full report that shows how pandemic investments have helped lower the number of unhoused people. There’s also a better understanding of what a person without shelter is going through “We still see a large proportion of folks that are in unsheltered settings that are in vehicles," Russell said. "So 54 percent of all the people recorded outside are in unsheltered settings are in vehicles so I think that’s consistent with what a lot of folks experience.” Around 1,100 people volunteered to help with the Point-In-Time count in Alameda County earlier this year -- recording more than 6,400 people as unsheltered. Russell has been working to figure out what the main factors are that caused the majority of those living situations. “Housing-related losses, either eviction, or household breakups, or job loss. Those are really the high cause factors for people losing their housing," he said. Victims in deadly Antioch shooting at bowling alley parking lot identified Alameda County’s goal is to end homelessness in 5 years, calling it the Home Together Community Plan. Russell says there’s an assumption that a majority of unhoused people are from outside Alameda County and don’t have a sense of community -- but that this year’s point in time count disproved that. “We found that the vast majority of folks in this count again have lived in Alameda County for a very long time. Almost 80 percent for 10 years or more," Russell said. The point-in-time count is a bi-annual event, so the next one will be done in January of 2026.