Emergency shelter use among homeless veterans on O'ahu appears to be on the decline, a new study shows, and some experts credit a veterans program in Kalaeloa with helping reduce demand.

The study, "Impact of Homeless Veterans Services on Emergency Shelter Utilization," highlights a 22-percent decrease in shelter stays by male military veterans during the past three years at the Institute of Human Services in Iwilei, one of the largest homeless service providers in Hawai'i.

During that same period, the report notes a positive effect on the veterans' homeless problem by U.S. Vets Hawai'i, a nonprofit service provider that for three years has specialized in serving veterans in Kalaeloa.

Although the report doesn't show a specific correlation between the drop in veterans' shelter usage at IHS and the programs at Kalaeloa, Michael Ullman, an independent homeless services consultant who authored the study, surmised: "It does seem reasonable at this point ... to conclude that U.S. Vets has played a substantial role in effecting the decrease."

The report comes at a time when experts say the number of homeless people on O'ahu seems to be rising among those who don't fit the stereotypical profile of the homeless, and who have been thrust into homelessness because of an inability to afford a home in the Islands' overheated housing market.

This problem has been especially acute along the Wai'anae Coast, where newly homeless tent campers occupy 16 miles of beach parks.

A majority of the veterans identified in the report fit the stereotype of the solitary, male, drug-addicted or alcoholic, mentally disturbed people often associated with homelessness.

More than half of these veterans entering U.S. Vets Hawai'i's Veterans in Progress program during fiscal year 2005-06 are between ages 31 and 50, and a high percentage of them are affected by mental illness, alcohol abuse or drug addiction.

U.S. Vets Hawai'i serves about 200 veterans in both its Homeless and Independent Living programs. Next month, U.S. Vets will take over the operation of the state's first round-the-clock emergency shelter in Wai'anae — a newly completed, 300-bed Civic Center facility that will serve the coast's homeless residents.

That effort, the first of its kind for any of a half-dozen U.S. Vets facilities nationwide, will hopefully serve as a working model for other emergency and transitional shelters, said Darryl Vincent, site director for U.S. Vets Hawai'i.

Vincent said at the Kalaeloa U.S. Vets site, homeless veterans are able to move directly into permanent housing once they're ready. While that won't be possible at the Wai'anae shelter, he's still optimistic about the outcome.

"We still need affordable housing with services," Vincent said. "But I believe we're the model of what can be done. We're hoping that we can work with these people, and by the time they're finished with treatment and working again, there will be affordable housing with services available for them."

Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.