Startling new numbers highlight just how big the homeless problem is in Central Florida and you don’t have to go far in Downtown Orlando to find homeless people.

Some stay in shelters, others on the streets and more and more people are finding themselves paying day to day to live in motels like the Heyward family.

“It’s really really tough, some days I don’t know what we are going to eat," said Joshua Heyward

He said he was been struggling to find a full time job. Right now his pregnant wife, his two children ages 4 and 2, and himself live in a motel room.

Katherine Heyward said her pregnancy was an accident, but said God won't give her anything she can't handle. She said the family is going through a difficult time right now.  "It’s sad for me because I want my kids a better life than this.”

The number of people struggling is alarming especially when it comes to chronically homeless people which means they have not had a place to live in at least a year.

Experts said many of them are mentally ill or disabled.

“The numbers came out just a few weeks ago and they were startling,” said Andrea Bailey from the Central Florida Commission on Homelessness

When compared to other areas of our size, Orange, Seminole, and Osceola Counties combined ranked first for chronically homeless people.

That’s according to a study recently released by the federal government.

Orange, Seminole, and Osceola Counties counties combined rank second for both the total number of homeless people and for the total number of homeless veterans.

The study counted the number of homeless people on a single night in January in 2013.

According to the study: "In January 2013, 610,042 people were homeless on a given night. Most (65 percent) were living in emergency shelters or transitional housing programs and 35 percent were living in unsheltered locations.  Nearly one-quarter (23 percent or 138,149) of all homeless people were children, under the age of 18. Ten percent (or 61,541) were between the ages of 18 and 24, and 67 percent (or 410,352) were 25 years or older. Homelessness declined by nearly 4 percent (or 23,740 people) between 2012 and 2013, and by 9 percent (or 61,846) since 2007."

Bailey said the numbers do not show the real problem because it does not count many families who are living day to day in motels. "Those of us that care about the homeless knew we had a problem, but the report confirmed it in a big way.”

Bailey thinks more low cost housing could help the problem. He said it’s an issue that affects the entire community.

The overall numbers have gone down across the county but the problem continues to grow here in Central Florida. Bailey said everyone needs to work together to find solutions to prevent more people from ending up on the streets. "That’s why we got to work together as a community to find new solutions in 2014.”

Cities comparable in size to Orange, Seminole and Osceola were places like Honolulu, HI, or Santa Rosa/Petaluma/Sonoma County, CA, or St. Petersburg/Clearwater/Largo/ Pinellas County, FL.

Bigger cities like New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco were put into their own category.