The homelessness problem is many-layered and complex, and for years, the government bureaucracy’s response has been scattershot and ineffective.

The history can be discouraging.

Honolulu Star-Advertiser writer Rob Perez chronicled government’s persistent failure to meet its public housing needs — with the same issues at play — a decade ago.

Nonetheless, the first sign of willingness to break down the bureaucratic barriers to progress in Hawaii’s homelessness crisis appeared last week with the formation of the Governor’s Leadership Team on Homelessness. It includes Hawaii’s top elected leaders at the city, state and federal level who actually have the power to overcome many of those barriers.

It’s a step in the right direction. But before the rounds of applause, aggressive action must be taken to move those roadblocks.

Unlike so many task forces that issue reports but otherwise are pretty toothless, this one includes the legislative fiscal leaders, Sen. Jill Tokuda and Rep. Sylvia Luke, as well as Gov. David Ige, Mayor Kirk Caldwell, City Council Chairman Ernie Martin and state Department of Human Services Director Rachael Wong.

U.S. Sens. Brian Schatz and Mazie Hirono will send designees; but the senators, like their teammates, must be held accountable by the public for whatever action emerges — or fails to emerge.

And what the taxpayers should expect are some creative approaches that will require the various government agencies to break down their individual silos for the common good. That will be necessary to speed up the timetable for achieving the immediate goal: finding shelter off the street for the homeless now living in crowded, dirty and increasingly lawless encampments.

Specifically, they must find a way to pool resources in a way that’s rarely tried. For example, the city has money in its Housing First program and the state has hundreds of vacant units in its public housing complexes. The units could be used for the homeless now camped out in Kakaako, Kapalama and elsewhere, but they’re uninhabited because they’re in derelict condition.

The state dropped the ball first by failing to set aside enough money to fix them in the last legislative session. But with the mayor and the City Council now playing on the same leadership team, one of those leading lights should illuminate a pathway in which city funds are tapped to solve a Honolulu homelessness problem in the city, with the use of existing state housing units. This might add capacity faster than many of the sites now listed as planned shelter locations by the city Office of Strategic Development.

The only one on the list that will be online before the end of the year is Hale Mauliola, the complex of rehabbed shipping containers at Sand Island, but that will accommodate only 39 individuals and 24 couples.

There’s far too little being done in the short term for the families living on the street.

The city’s list includes various unspecified properties that could be used for safe zones for these families.

The Caldwell administration has correctly decided to loosen the conventional rules that bar pets and daytime occupancy in order to bring more homeless people off the street and close to where services to address health problems and improve their employment prospects can be delivered.

But these members of the homeless population also must be bound by some rules in this temporary community, including rules that restrict rowdy behavior for the protection of everybody under that roof.

Such rules should prepare them for a return to a more productive status in society. The sheltered residents should be employed in the upkeep of the facility, for starters, and enlisted in shelter governance. The unsheltered often lose all sense of human dignity on the street: Assuming personal responsibility is a necessary component to regain it.

All of this is aimed at creating a short-term respite for those living on sidewalks and in other, more hidden enclaves.

For the long term, the development of low-income housing is crucial, not only for residents here already but for the migrants from Pacific nations who will continue to come under the Compact of Free Association.

These are people who need to be integrated into Western society, with its mandate for school attendance and its value placed on gainful employment and self-sufficiency. Their arrival has placed a strain on state resources, and the federal government must be pressed to help Hawaii cope. The recent award of $14 million in federal grants to support housing is a start.

As for the finish line for this homelessness morass, it’s not even within view. But at least the people who call themselves Hawaii’s leaders are publicly owning the problem, and that could be a turning point in the fight.