(KAIR) -- Many people during the holiday season think of time with family, huddling around the fireplace in their warm home.

However, not all are so lucky, and are on the streets, homeless.

While homelessness nationally has dropped in some sections slightly, the issue on the state and local level is still an ongoing problem.

On a single night last January, 633,782 people were homeless in the United States, largely unchanged from the year before.

U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan noted that even during a historic housing and economic downturn, local communities are reporting significant declines in the number of homeless veterans and those experiencing long-term chronic homelessness.

The 2012 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress, prepared by HUD, estimates there were 62,619 homeless Veterans on a single night in January in the United States, a 7.2 percent decline since 2011 and a 17.2 percent decline since 2009.

However, in Kansas, that trend is not being bucked.

HUD reports local homeless housing and service providers in Kansas reported that the number of sheltered and unsheltered homeless people increased by 6.9 percent between 2011 and 2012.

Even worse, in Atchison, the homeless for years have had look for other ways or travel distance to seek shelter.

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That’s Bridgette Lutz (Loots) with the Atchison Area Salvation Army.

They are unable to provide shelter to the homeless due to lack of funds and volunteers.

Therefore, they are usually referenced to find a way to Saint Joseph to seek shelter if friends and family are not an option.

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That’s Kelly Ingram, Director of the Saint Joseph Salvation Army Shelter.

She says their shelter remains very full on a consistent basis.

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Those that stay sign several agreements to remain in the shelter, which makes their stay vary from several days to months.

Ingram says those include a financial gain plan and 20 hours of positive activity.

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Overall, Abbie Carter, case worker with the Atchison Salvation Army, says it would take man hurdles for someone to go through the proper steps to get a homeless shelter up and running in Atchison.

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Carter, who used to work at DoVES, a non-profit organization that gives undisclosed shelter for victims of abuse, says sometimes, they were able to take in requests from the general homeless, only if they were able to get them to reveal enough signs of abuse from their past to qualify for the DoVES program.