(AP) — Cold weather and a federal program priority change have combined to provide what may be a misleading drop in the number of homeless people in Lincoln

There’s been a 12.4 percent drop over the past year.

This year’s count of unsheltered people was done Jan. 22, when the wind child was minus 18. Officials say the colder the night, the lower the number of people outside in a place where they can be counted. Officials say that count was not definitive.

Also, the U.S. Housing and Urban Development shifted money from what’s called transitional services to permanent housing services and to a new program called Rapid Rehousing. People in transitional housing are counted as homeless. People in permanent or Rapid Rehousing programs are not.