"How do you like the Chinese garden?" Stu Murray asked KITV reporter Lara Yamada, showing her the front of the house he's been living in for three weeks.

He is an Air Force veteran, private adviser, and overall hard working-guy.

Stuart Murray now has what's eluded him for more than a year: A place to live.

"That's a bed that hasn't been put together. And you could put a circus in here," he said, showing off the living room.

"It's such a great problem here in Hawaii. We're really trying to figure out how to solve that problem," said Dr. Kim Cook, executive eirector at U.S. Vets in Kapolei. In any given night, up to 500 veterans are living homeless in Hawaii, she said.

"I got into a long period of homelessness," said veteran Michael Berry, who is one of several hundred who have gone through the program's transitional housing.

He said it was fit for him, but he knows it's not for everyone.

"I'm just really grateful for the help I receive here," said Berry.

"Our traditional program has been our transitional housing program and that is a highly structured environment," said Cook.

Murray is one of the first phases of veterans considered chronically homeless, and part of a new less-structured program called Housing First.