A new federal count of the homeless released Tuesday shows numbers declined in the U.S. and in Colorado between January 2010 and January 2011 — a finding that sharply conflicts with local groups’ reports of a worsening crisis.

U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan reported that 636,017 people were homeless in the U.S. on a night in January 2011, a 2.1 percent decline from January 2010.

HUD likewise cited a 2.3 percent decline in homelessness in Colorado for the same period.

HUD makes the annual “point-in-time” counts to show a snapshot of homelessness across the country. Donovan said the numbers show the Obama administration’s strategy to end homelessness, including the $1.5 billion Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re- housing Program, is working.

“It’s remarkable that in the wake of the most serious economic crisis since the Great Depression, we’re witnessing an across-the-board drop in homelessness,” Donovan said in a statement released Tuesday afternoon.

The HUD data are outdated and misleading, said Colorado Coalition for the Homeless president John Parvensky. They contradict the reality in the streets here to such a degree, Parvensky said, that “it was almost like I was living in a parallel universe.”

Parvensky said HUD funding did help prevent 3,000 Colorado families from becoming homeless in 2010, but then the money ran out. And this year has been disastrous for homelessness, he said.

HUD officials could not be reached for comment on the disparities.

The Metro Denver Homeless Initiative reported a 2.8 percent increase in homelessness from January 2009, the last year for which figures were available, to January 2011. On Jan. 24, a Monday night, there were 11,377 homeless people counted in the metro area, and several thousand more across the state.

Using the single-night counts, as well as reporting by schools and other sources of information, a clearer picture emerges, Parvensky said.

The past 12 months have seen increasing numbers of individuals and families on the streets, more households facing imminent eviction, more people competing for fewer housing resources and a long waiting list for mental-health services, he said.

Denver Rescue Mission spokeswoman Alexxa Gagner said metro shelters are full, homeless programs are full and there are waiting lists for both. The numbers of homeless women and of chronic homeless have increased in the past few years, she said.

Even HUD reported that Colorado was one of five states with the highest rates of unsheltered homeless families in January. The others were Wyoming, Florida, Oregon and Arkansas.

“We’re likely to see it get a lot worse before it gets better,” Parvensky said.

Electa Draper: 303-954-1276 or edraper@denverpost.com