MANCHESTER, N.H. — The departments of Housing and Urban Development and Veterans Affairs say the number of homeless veterans nationwide has declined slightly.

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson told reporters Tuesday in New Hampshire that the number of veterans who are homeless fell by 2 percent between 2018 and 2019.

That follows a decline of 5 percent from a year earlier and is down by almost 50 percent from 2009.

Carson largely credits the progress to an approach started under the Obama administration. It centered on a program called the HUD-VA Supporting Housing Program, which Congress boosted funds to in 2008. It gives homeless veterans permanent housing while also providing them a case manager and clinical care services.