The group of people, cold, tired and most of all, homeless, were being ushered out of a Port Authority building at the Journal Square Transportation Center yesterday afternoon, into the bone-chilling 24-degree weather.

"Two men had a bottle of vodka and they threw us all out,” said a 58-year-old homeless man, explaining the mass exodus. “They were just sleeping. We didn't like it."

The building, where Port Authority officials allow the homeless a reprieve from the bitter cold, was one of the places crews working with the 2014 Hudson County Point-in-Time homeless count visited yesterday.

Behind the PATH station, two homeless men were taken away in an ambulance.

"I lost my job and my money ran out and I’ve been homeless almost a year," said a 62-year-old woman waiting outside the PATH Station for the shuttle to St. Lucy’s Shelter in Jersey City where she will stay until morning.

John Jay College of Criminal Justice Sociology Professor Mike Rowan and his team took a count in Journal Square and had each person answer questions for a survey that is used to securing funding. The results are forwarded to the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The 62-year-old woman participated and said "I hope it helps a lot of us."

Teams fanned out across the county yesterday and surveyed the homeless on PATH trains, in shelters, emergency rooms, public places and transitional housing as part of a federally mandated homeless count.

Orlando Davis, 63, who was once homeless, helped out with Rowan’s team by handing out sandwiches, toilet paper, toiletries, hats, gloves and blankets.

“The only reason I’m not homeless is because my family took me in,” said Davis. “I’m helping because I remember what it was like being homeless. It’s good to have a place to go home to…I hope the politicians will really take a look at the survey.”

The teams also scour doorways and fast food restaurants and anywhere they might spot a homeless person sheltering from the frigid weather, said Randi Moore, program director for housing assistance for the Hudson County Division of Housing and Community Development.

Last year’s homeless count identified 942 homeless people, of which 624 were unaccompanied. There were 121 homeless families identified and among them, 198 children, according to the draft report on last year’s count.

It was found that 410 families, totaling 1,122 people, were receiving temporary rental assistance form the Hudson County Division of Welfare and would otherwise have been homeless. There were 147 households with minor children receiving the temporary aid, according to the report.

Those who provide for the homeless in Hudson County “will tell you the need is growing because of the economy and it has been a cold winter,” said Moore. The theory behind the survey is that counting homeless people in shelters alone would not account for the true number of homeless.

There are three shelters in Hudson County, the Palisades Emergency Residence Corp. in Union City, the Hoboken Shelter in Hoboken and St. Lucy's in Jersey City.

"The survey would not be possible without the help of the nonprofits who are helping and working with the homeless population day in and day out making sure the homeless are fed and sheltered,” Moore said.

Donations to help the homeless can be made to the Garden State Episcopal Community Development Corporation at http://gsecdc.org. Donation can also be made to the Hoboken Homeless Shelter, St. Lucy’s Shelter and the PERC Shelter in Union City, Moore said.