Hartford — Many problems in society are intractable. This apparently isn't one of them.

After years of hard work providing services, the professionals who deal with the issue on a daily basis say Connecticut will essentially end homelessness for veterans by December 2015.

"It is one of the greatest professional successes of my career," said Suzanne Piacentini, field office director in Hartford for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Piacentini was talking about a group effort across governmental levels with nonprofits, as well as public and private partnerships, all working toward the same goal without regard to agency boundaries or efforts to grab the credit.

Two years ago, both the state and the federal government set goals to end homelessness for veterans by 2015. Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has also signed onto the more difficult goal of ending chronic homelessness for the general population by 2016.

Connecticut is confident in its plan to reduce homelessness for veterans over the next five months, to what it is calling "functional zero."

This involves a benchmark of getting them into interim housing within a month and, for the majority, permanent housing in under three months.

The estimate is that there are between 250 and 300 homeless veterans today in the state, according to Alison Cunningham, executive director of Columbus House in New Haven, one of the most successful local service agencies with a housing presence across Connecticut.

"That's a really manageable number. That's a number we can work off," she said.

This population includes some older veterans living on the street and younger vets just getting back stateside, people dealing with the challenging issues of employment and mental health and addiction problems, exacerbated by Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and chronic medical conditions.

"I don't think any of us are naive enough to say we can control this, that nobody will become homeless again," Cunningham said. Given the poverty rates in the U.S. and the high cost of living here, people will become homeless, but at least for this group a structure and funding is in place.

The approach to dealing with the homeless generally is very different than it was, Cunningham said.

"The system to move people out (of shelters) wasn't as tight as it is now. Certainly, it was never this coordinated," Cunningham said. "The whole world of homeless services has changed."

"No more is it just Columbus House has a client that needs help," she explained. "It is the whole community has a client that we are focusing our resources on."

That means the individual could qualify for housing offered, not only by Columbus House but also by Liberty Services, Continuum of Care, New Reach and others.

"It is not just this linear path that the client is going down. It is much more collaborative," she said.

The plan is set up to prevent the homeless from cycling in and out of shelters or languishing there.

"The longer you stay — the longer you stay. It's like a sink hole. Once you are here, if you don't get out of here pretty quickly ... people become more depressed and that depression can really eat away at your self-confidence," she said of the long-term effects.

Cunningham said they used to offer transitional housing for up to two years for people.

Now transitional housing is viewed as a safe place to go, but the focus and energy is put into finding permanent housing within 60 days.

"The philosophy has changed from getting people ready for housing, to getting people into housing. Once people are housed, we are going to deal with what their issues are," she said.

In some ways, Cunningham said, dealing with a specific target population, rather than the general homeless population, allowed all the providers to drill down and coordinate the many services already out there for veterans.

She credits Greg Behrman, a veteran, former Wall Street analyst, and before that an aide to U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus, with bringing everyone to the table over the past two years through a working group specifically on homeless veterans.

It got added to the agenda of Opening Doors Connecticut, the state's effort mirroring federal initiatives in this area, because of Behrman's interest in the topic. "He's a volunteer. No one is paying him," Cunningham said.

"For the first time, we had all of us around the table," she said of service providers and funders.

Behrman shared Cunningham's positive analysis that the effort will work.

"It will be a big push, but I think the state has already been transformed. All of our decisions are informed by data. That has been one of the signal achievements," he said.

Behrman said the federal government deserves credit by stepping up with funding. As for finding housing before worrying about other goals, "that has been a game changer," he said of the programs.

Behrman founded NationSwell, "a media company focused on covering the people who are leading positive change throughout the country," according to Business Insider.

On the availability of housing, HUD is a huge part of the story, said Laurie Harkness, who put together the expansive program of medical, employment, mental health and legal services offered at the Errera Community Care Center in West Haven under the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, VA Connecticut Healthcare System.

She has 14 programs to serve the needs of the veterans and said years ago they recognized the need to put the homeless in housing first, before other issues, an approach that has been recognized nationally.

Harkness said HUD provides $27 million a year in subsidized housing. "Without HUD at the table, this wouldn't work. And without the local public housing authorities collaborating and working with us closely to get veterans housed, it wouldn't work," she said.

HUD, as one piece of its contribution, has underwritten 755 housing vouchers over the last eight years in Connecticut. It is currently providing permanent homes for 619 formerly homeless veterans, helping to house a total of 838 homeless veterans since 2008 in this state, according to its website.

Known as VASH (Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing) vouchers, 79,000 have been issued to qualifying veterans across the country during that timeframe.

Cunningham said a decade ago this option, which is essentially a Section 8 voucher with support services, didn't exist.

She said landlords tend to be cooperative when a social worker visits the client and assures them she is around to help with a smooth tenancy.

"The staff goes to visit these clients regularly," Cunningham said.

VASH not only provides rental assistance, geared to costs in a geographic area, but it also underwrites the cost of case management and clinical services provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs at its medical centers and community-based outreach clinics like Errera.

Harkness said for every 25 vouchers, HUD provides funding for a clinical social worker.

She said the Errera center is rich in resources because of the federal commitment, which enables it to help the veterans who use it on a daily basis and also the other community providers who contact them.

Maureen Pasko, who heads up the homeless program at Errera, said it contracts for 18 homeless shelter beds in the state.

It also has an arrangement to use 155 transitional housing beds with community agencies across the state in 16 programs. This includes a per diem payment to Columbus House for use of beds at Harkness House on Davenport Avenue, one of Columbus House's transition housing options.

The VA provides 65 percent of the acquisition and renovation costs for groups who invest in housing. "The VA doesn't want to be in the business of owning real estate," she said.

"We want to partner with communities because our veterans are re-integrating back into communities. That's where their friends are. That's where their social supports are. That's where their jobs are," Harkness said.

Both Cunningham and Harkness appreciate HUD's Supportive Services for Veteran Families program, which in addition to case management, offers financial assistance to veterans to get out of homelessness through rapid re-housing or to prevent homelessness.

Columbus House is one of three agencies in the state to share in this $3.2 million grant.

The money supports practical solutions, such as paying old utility bills for those threatened with eviction, short term back rent allotments or help with a car repair to provide transportation to work. For those lined up for an apartment, the funds can go to security deposits.

"It has been a huge help on the prevention side," Cunningham said. It also reaches a larger population as it is not limited to vets who are eligible for VA health care, Harkness said.

The Errera center has a fleet of 53 vehicles to respond to a call anywhere in the state to help a homeless vet. Similar programs to Errera's are also available at the VA's Newington campus.

Columbus House, in addition to its 81-bed shelter, runs a separate 75-bed overflow shelter from November to April and has a facility for 50 families at its Middlesex Family Shelter, among other options.

It has had a supportive housing function for 18 years and is associated with 300 units of permanent supportive housing across the state in Middletown, New London, Waterbury, Hartford and New Britain. This is housing that provides the services of a case worker.

It's first congregate housing was Cedar Woods on State Street in the city; the agency now has seven where a case worker is on site.

Legion Woods is an apartment house on Legion Avenue; they opened Val Macri on Frank Street in coordination with Elm City Communities and another house on Whalley Avenue. "They don't stand out. They are your neighbors," Cunningham said.

There are also other providers in New Haven that offer supportive housing that serve the general population and veterans.

"We have been really aggressive in securing this kind of resource for our clients because we know it is what works," Cunningham said. It is designed for people who have had longer periods of homelessness and who live with a disability, such as mental illness or substance abuse.

Another option that helps veterans is one that supports shared housing, where several veterans will rent an apartment as a more affordable option. It may not be permanent, but it is an interim step until they are more independent.

Cunningham said using all the options is how the state will get to zero homelessness by 2016 across the state, if it just builds on the success of the veterans programs with its resources.

Her major worry, however, is the high cost of living, the tight rental market, particularly in New Haven, and the lack of affordable housing.

The National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates what it takes to afford an apartment, which should tap no more than 30 percent of your income.

At minimum wage, to afford a $1,055 fair market rent for a one-bedroom apartment, someone would have to work more than 80 hours a week.

"That's two full-time jobs, and we know there are people who do that," Cunningham said.

It doesn't sound like a national solution.