As momentum builds in San Diego to solve homelessness among military veterans, the United Veterans Council of San Diego County will hold a summit on the issue Saturday.

The point is to discuss City Hall’s announcement in March of the Housing Our Heroes campaign, a $12.5 million effort to get 1,000 veterans off the streets by the end of the year.

2016 Veterans Homelessness Summit Where: The San Diego Veterans Museum and Memorial Center, 2115 Park Blvd When: From 9 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday Who: United Veterans Council of San Diego County

“We want to help understand and appreciate the scope of problem, the number of agencies and ways for connectivity, said Jack Harkins, the Vietnam-era Marine veteran who chairs the volunteer veterans council.

“What additional role can we play? We’ve got 240,000 veterans in San Diego County. We’ve got lots of capabilities. If we know a way we can bring some of that competency into it, we will,” he said.

The data on homelessness has been improving for veterans in San Diego.

Since the 2008 fiscal year, two federal agencies – the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Housing and Urban Development – have issued nearly 1,485 housing vouchers for this region’s veterans.

These vouchers, which don’t sunset, can provide the lion’s share of the rent required to get a vet off the street and into an apartment.

Since 2015, the VA has also poured $7 million a year into San Diego in grants called supportive services for veterans families. These grants can give a struggling vet help with a utility bill or rent, if it means the difference between living under a roof or homelessness.

Additionally, in early 2014, the $30 million Aspire Center opened on a former law school campus near Old Town. The national pilot project offers 40 residential treatment beds for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans with mental illnesses who are teetering on homelessness.

“Things are evolving. We are getting a little more energy and connectivity,” Harkins said.

However, there are still roughly 1,380 San Diego veterans who are homeless.

That’s according to the January 2015 “point-in-time” count, when an army of volunteers attempts to count the homeless one morning.

Still, that’s down from 2009, when more than 2,100 veterans went without housing, said Cara Franke, the San Diego VA’s coordinator of health care for homeless veterans.

The continuing homeless veterans population could be, in part, reputation.

VA officials say that veterans tell them San Diego has an online reputation for being a good place for basic services for struggling vets.

For example, one eHow.com article titled "The Best Cities to Live in When You're Homeless" put San Diego at the top of the list.

Meanwhile, a few other major U.S. cities, such as New Orleans, say they have basically ended homelessness among veterans as the result of a five-year VA drive to achieve zero “functional” homelessness among veterans by 2015.

Another issue, advocates say, is San Diego’s low vacancy rate for apartments.

Only 2.4 percent of county apartments were available in March, which has pushed up rents. Average rent for a studio apartment in the county is $1,283.

That’s why the city’s Housing Our Heroes is sweetening the pot for landlords, who will receive $500 for the first apartment they rent to a homeless veteran and $250 for each additional unit.

The program also covers security deposits, expected to average $1,500 per unit, and $100 in one-time utility assistance per household.

There is also a contingency fund for damage to units. That may convince landlords reluctant to rent to homeless veterans who have bad credit, past evictions or criminal records.

The impact of Housing Our Heroes may not show in the homeless count for another year or so.

But VA officials are hoping to see some success reflected in the January 2016 homeless tally, which will be released in May.

“We are on pins and needles, just waiting to see the numbers,” Franke said. “I’m really looking forward to seeing the numbers go down.”