The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on Thursday announced that it has awarded $30.6 million to 68 homeless housing and service programs in Colorado.

The money awarded to Colorado, part of $2 billion in Continuum of Care grants given out nationwide to combat homelessness, will be directed at organizations that provide housing and support services to individuals and families lacking a home.

Last month, HUD reported that homelessness crept up in the United States, with an annual homeless assessment report showing 553,742 people without a home in 2017. That was 0.7 percent higher than in 2016.

HUD’s 2017 data show that there was a significant increase in the number of reported persons experiencing unsheltered homelessness, particularly in California and other high-cost rental markets that lack affordable housing.

Despite the metro area’s rapidly increasing home prices over the last few years, a HUD report on homelessness released last month showed that those without a home in and around Denver in 2017 actually declined nearly 4 percent from the year before.

But homelessness in the state overall went up by nearly 4 percent from 2016 to 2017, according to HUD. The agency’s survey showed that there were 10,940 homeless people in Colorado. Of those, 7,081 lived in emergency shelters or transitional housing and 3,859 slept in vehicles on the streets and riverbanks.