BATON ROUGE - Federal data shows there's been a significant drop in homelessness in Louisiana over the past seven years.

According to the U.S. Housing and Urban Development's Point-in-Time count, which tracks the number of homeless people living in shelters or on streets on a single night in January, there were an estimated 3,994 people in the state in 2016, compared to 4,081 in 2015 and 12,504 in 2009.

Officials say that's a 68 percent drop since 2009.

Louisiana Housing Corporation Executive Director Keith Cunningham says while the homeless numbers are decreasing there's still much work to do.