The streets are an unacceptable location for sheltering the homeless. The reality? That’s where many of them are and, it appears, will remain for some time.

The goal — which must be achieved in short order — remains finding safer havens for Oahu’s homeless population, ultimately stable housing where they can be helped with their chronic health problems and other social-service needs.

There are important steps being taken to at least make conditions less harsh, while the homeless wait for better options, even temporary shelter.

For the medium term, Honolulu City Council Chairman Ernie Martin has called for leaders to develop a “safe zone” in each Council district, sites that are better-equipped than the current encampments that spring up in random, hidden places.

Communities around the island do need places where the homeless can use hygiene facilities, wash their clothes and have security. They should have at least some measure of privacy but ultimately should be reachable by the government and social service workers who could help them.

This call deserves a response, and while sites for safe zones are still unconfirmed, it’s encouraging to see some progress made in the right direction.

In the Wahiawa, Whitmore Village and Poamoho areas, state Rep. Marcus Oshiro recently teamed with outreach workers to survey his district. Based on their count, the homeless population there has doubled in less than a year, which is not surprising given the enforcement actions conducted in urban Honolulu in the intervening months.

And, with a conservative estimate of this area’s population at around 120, creating some accommodation is critical.

But in the meantime, the Wahiawa Community Based Development Organization has received a $452,000 federal grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and has set aside $75,000 to buy a van. Initially intended as a service to give nursing aid to elders and homebound residents, Oshiro had the right instinct to urge that it provide outreach to the homeless as well.

Dubbed the “Holoholo Truck,” the van is envisioned as a multifaceted service, which, in addition to medical help, would include a “mobile farmers’ market” to bring locally grown produce to people with little access to fresh food.

More strictly focused on homelessness outreach, the nonprofit group Surfing the Nations is erecting a $1.5 million, two-story Community Outreach and Training Center in the middle of Wahiawa town.

It’s not a safe zone but it will provide at least some of the amenities of one: a place where homeless people can use the bathroom and shower, get food (Surfing the Nations provides food to the needy across the island) and find clothing. A fresh change of clothes will be essential for job hunting or just to supplement or replace what they have.

The facility benefited from a grant totaling almost $100,000 that also will provide a place for health-care providers and social workers.

These actions represent an admirable cooperative effort by government and private organiza- tions; Oahu needs to see many more such partnerships allied to combat homelessness.

The long-term effects of prolonged homelessness are brutal. The chronic deprivation, isolation and discomfort breeds health problems as well as myriad behavioral ills. They lose the ability, and the will, to care for themselves and others.

A community’s moral response to this tragedy is to intervene. Ideally the goal is to shorten their time in uncivilized conditions, but at the very least, neighbors must collaborate to make those conditions a little more humane.