When teams of volunteers went out to count the homeless in Attleboro last year, they stopped by a wooded area known as "tent city" where several people had pitched their makeshift homes.

When teams went out Tuesday to do this year's tally, there was no one in tents to count.

Volunteers, overall, found fewer homeless in area communities this year than they found a year ago, when a federally mandated "Point in Time Count" was first conducted.

Although reports are still coming in, the count so far is at 219 for the greater Attleboro and Taunton areas, compared with the final tally of 320 a year ago, said Marilyn Godfrey, director of community impact for the United Way of Greater Attleboro/Taunton who helped coordinate the effort.

About half of the 219 counted so far are in the Taunton area. In Attleboro, 42 adults were counted, but most are living in shelters, motels, or someone's else room or apartment. Only four were living and sleeping outdoors, and none were found in abandoned buildings. Only four adults were found in Mansfield, and only seven in North Attleboro and all were living in a motel.

Organizers say the decline is evidence of the effectiveness of various programs aimed at getting the homeless off the streets and into housing and services.

Dot Embree, president of the Attleboro Area Homeless Coalition and executive director of the Attleboro Area Council of Churches, said programs like the council of churches' Homes with Heart have made a dent.

The program, which is funded by a three-year grant through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development agency, has gotten nine individuals into apartments and into support services. But Embree said many more people were interviewed as part of the program, and then were referred to other agencies for their specific needs.

HUD began mandating last year that local agencies who apply for federal housing grants conduct an actual count of the homeless annually, rather than simply doing a paper count as was done in the past.

For this year's count, eight teams of volunteers set off from Attleboro city hall Tuesday morning to look for homeless in Attleboro and five neighboring communities. A similar count was conducted in Taunton and its bordering towns.

"We went to places where we thought we would find people," Godfrey said.

They stopped by motels, looked under bridges, scoured wooded areas, checked abandoned buildings and simply walked the streets, asking anyone who appeared to be homeless if indeed they were.

The volunteers also took along packets of food and supplies donated by local St. Vincent de Paul groups, and packets of information on where the homeless could go for food, shelter, clothing and other types of assistance and support.

This year the counts also included people who are "doubling up" in someone else's apartment or rented room, but are not supposed to be living there. Godfrey said that although that figure is not required by HUD, she believes it is necessary to get a true picture of the area's housing needs. "If someone is doubling up with someone, I feel they are homeless," she said.

To address the needs of the homeless in the future, Godfrey said the United Way intends to continue providing a grant writer and other coordinating services to local agencies who want to apply for HUD grants, as was done with the Homes with Heart grant.

The local homeless coalition has also put together a "winter plan" that local officials and agencies can follow when they encounter the homeless, so they will know who to contact for help and shelter, depending on the time of day or night.

Coalition members have invited local police and fire departments and hospital personnel to an upcoming meeting so they can present and explain the plan to them.