A battalion of social and mental health workers descended on San Pedro’s waterfront homeless encampment this week, mirroring an approach employed at Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles.

Working from a folding table in Plaza Park that served as base camp, the outreach — something of a homelessness “triage” — pulled together more than two dozen field workers from various agencies in a full-court press to move people off the streets.

“The whole goal and purpose is to find out who’s been contacted (before), who is in the system and who’s slipping through the cracks — and why,” said Shari Weaver of Harbor Interfaith Services, the lead agency in charge of the outreach.

• PHOTOS: Social workers take to San Pedro’s streets to get help for homeless

By Thursday morning, the third day in the four-day campaign, notable victories had been logged.

• A 53-year-old woman named Rita — who has lived on the streets for more than a decade since she was widowed and is well known to social workers — agreed to sign up for services at the Los Angeles County Mental Health Department.

• Two homeless veterans were placed in housing, including a 69-year-old veteran with alcohol and mental issues who had become a fixture at Third Street and Pacific Avenue and was formerly resistent to help after 20 years on the streets. “He said ‘OK’ (to the offer of services this time) and he got into our car,” Weaver said. “We took him to Mental Health and they got him into a place the same day.”

The other veteran, who received the Purple Heart for his service in Vietnam and had been on the streets around Pacific Avenue for a year, was enrolled in a program, said Pedro Jauregui of U.S. Vets, who worked with the man and his family to make arrangements on Tuesday. “Two words that should never go together are ‘homeless’ and ‘vet,’ ” said Jauregui, who is also a vet and was previously homeless. “We’re here to help everybody, but if we can get a vet off the streets, it’s an added blessing.”

• Several people with medical problems were taken in for treatment. Others were transported to local agencies to apply for everything from general relief to medical insurance and basic California IDs — putting them officially into the system that can, in turn, put them on track for housing.

Headquartered at Plaza Park — the greenbelt overlooking the Main Channel and across from San Pedro’s historic post office in the 800 block of Beacon Street — team members were dispatched for several hours each morning to connect with the some 20-30 homeless individuals who live in and around the area.

With a winsome blend of friendliness, humor and, when needed, directness — she was a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy in the 1980s — Weaver moves easily among the clutter of tents and overflowing shopping carts in search of those willing to make a change.

“You can always talk to me, what’s going on?” she tells a homeless man who approached her to ask for a ride to the Social Security office in Torrance.

While Harbor Interfaith regularly canvases the encampments, the coordinated push executed this week provided more comprehensive, one-stop services, she said.

Community frustration over the encampments remains at a high point in San Pedro. Using legal recourse to clear the streets is often hamstrung by restrictions put in place by various lawsuits against the city of Los Angeles.

Those living on the streets cannot be forced to enter treatment or other programs.

“It’s been a challenge, and I get that” people are frustrated, Weaver said. “I understand, I’m a resident (of San Pedro) myself.”

But there has been progress, she said. Homeless individuals today aren’t as quick to turn down what have become repeated offers of help as they were in the past, she said.

“Now they ask, ‘How long do you think it’s going to take?’ ” she said.

They’re also more likely to admit to having drug and alcohol problems in follow-up conversations.

The lack of subsidized housing remains a problem, she said. Several people have qualified to receive housing vouchers, but often there are no available units.

Typical area rents, she said, remain high, which feeds the spiraling homelessness numbers. Updated counts released this week showed a 5.7 percent increase countywide from the same time last year.

In the South Bay and Harbor Area, homelessness climbed 10.5 percent over January 2015. On any given night, there are an estimated 5,913 people on the streets of South Bay and Harbor Area communities.

But the count also showed that overall veteran and family homelessness decreased significantly, which Weaver believes is a sign that a “laser” focus on particular populations is bringing results.

As elected officials scramble to find money to build more housing, the labor-intensive, day-to-day work of people like Weaver plods forward. Success comes rarely with one conversation. It usually comes with forging relationships over time.

“There’s no typical conversation out here,” Weaver said. “I think, ‘OK, so how am I going to negotiate with this one?’ I’m tenacious and I have all the patience in the world. I’m not going away.”

She opens her one-on-one talk with Rita in the park with this: “You and I have been talking for how many years now?”

Until Thursday, Rita had resisted taking steps that could get her counseling, medication and housing. Weaver asked if she now might be ready.

Well, Rita replied uncertainly, there were other priorities she needed to take care of first.

“How about if you could take care of both?”

After about 15 minutes in which other counselors joined the circle, Rita agreed to let a mental health worker put in a referral for her to get an appointment.

“OK,” Weaver said with a smile.

A small step, but significant progress, Weaver said.

With Harbor Interfaith as the lead, the collaborative intervention included representatives from the Los Angeles County Homeless Services Authority, U.S. Vets, Veterans Administration, Mental Health America and Department of Mental Health’s SB 82 outreach team.

It’s resulted in a still-growing computerized spreadsheet with names, contact information, any agency referrals and follow-up notes.

Weaver said initial plans are to schedule the intensive outreaches monthly, targeting “hot spots” where the homeless have gathered in large numbers.

The blocks around the post office and Plaza Park, she said, were “the obvious first choice.”

Every morning, Weaver wakes up “with my to-do list,” the challenge of matching individuals with services and — ultimately — housing. It’s one person at a time.

“Any person we get off the streets is another victory,” she said. “Hopefully, we’ll stack up more victories in the years to come.”