KALAELOA — Sept. 5, 1982, 4:30 p.m., 440 Logan St. in Brooklyn.

"That's the exact day, time and place my father gave me my first piece of crack cocaine," Maurice Hibbler said. "My life has never been the same since."

Hibbler has experienced the hell of being an abuser of drugs and alcohol, and for the first time in 23 years, he knows again what hope feels like. Hibbler is looking forward to two new red-letter days in his life: Sept. 1, when he moves into a transitional housing unit, and Sept. 21, his 45th birthday and seven-month anniversary of being clean and sober.

Hibbler, who served in the Army from January 1978 to May 1992, is one of more than 500 homeless veterans who have received help to rebuild their lives at the U.S. VETS-Hawaii housing and service program at Kalaeloa since it opened in October 2003.

"I owe this program my life," Hibbler said yesterday while Charles S. Ciccolella, assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Labor's Veterans Employment and Training Services (VETS), and Joseph C. Sharpe Jr., deputy director of the American Legion's National Economic Commission, toured the three-building facility on Shangrila Avenue here at the former Barbers Point Naval Air Station.

"Without it, I don't know where I would be," added Hibbler, who works at Campbell Industrial Park and will be attending refrigeration/air-conditioning school in September.

Hibbler is among 180 veterans now at the VETS-Hawaii facility. One veteran there is older than 70 while the youngest are in their 20s. They are among an estimated 275,000 homeless veterans in America.

Hibbler ended up on the streets six years after being honorably discharged in 1992, as his abuse of drugs and alcohol took its toll on his bank account and ability to work. In July 1998, he was arrested in Chinatown for dealing crack cocaine to an undercover officer. He was released from prison in January 2005, a former honor student who once dreamed of becoming an architect but who was now an ex-convict with no job prospects and still craving a "hit."

"In February, I went to get high, but I found out it didn't have the same appeal," Hibbler said. "I've been clean and sober since.

"When I came out the door (of prison), I wanted to get into a clean and sober house," he recalled. "They wanted $400 rent, a $200 deposit, $240 for the program and $270 for books and tuition. I still got on prison underwear and they wanted over $1,000? That's when I found out about the U.S. VETS program. It was the break I needed."

Rick Velasquez, Pacific islands coordinator of the Department of Veterans Affairs' healthcare for homeless veterans program, said the three components of U.S. VETS are employment/ training, substance-abuse treatment and transitional housing.

In Hawai'i, two of the buildings at Kalaeloa are dedicated to housing. Residents pay $350 for a dorm room and $450 for a single unit. "It's so they can save money," Velasquez said.

Veteran Affairs coordinates the program, which is operated in a partnership by U.S. VETS, a nonprofit venture between Cloudbreak Development LLC and the U.S. Veterans Initiative. The Kalaeloa facility was acquired with money from the Department of Labor.

Stephani Hardy, U.S. VETS executive director, said her group operates 10 facilities for homeless veterans. In addition to Hawai'i, the others are in Los Angeles, Long Beach, Riverside and Compton, Calif.; Las Vegas; Phoenix and Prescott, Ariz.; Houston; and Washington, D.C.

On any given night, there are 2,000 veterans at the 10 facilities, said Hardy.

Many of the homeless veterans in the facilities are combat veterans who found it difficult to adjust to everyday life at home, said Hardy. The facilities are now starting to see veterans from the continuing Middle East operations.

"We have six veterans at our sites who served in Iraq and Afghanistan," Hardy said. "Three of them, who are 23, are guys who served in the same platoon. We also have two women in our Los Angeles facility.

"In Iraq, there's no letting up; you could be blown up anytime," Hardy added. "So the transition back to a stable environment can be very difficult for some."

U.S. VETS-Hawaii site director Darryl Vincent said 80 percent of veterans in the program here over the past three years were in need of substance-abuse and mental-health treatments and programs. Of those who have left the program, 84 percent have not returned to the streets and 86 percent have maintained sobriety, said Vincent.

Reach Rod Ohira at rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com.