In the two years since the Long Island Bridge was closed, cutting off access to the homeless shelter on the island, Boston officials say they have ramped up efforts to combat chronic homelessness, citing increases in shelter and program beds along with an emphasis on streamlining the city’s care protocols.

The shelter and many state-contracted detox and addiction programs were closed in October 2014 after the 53-year-old span was deemed structurally unsafe. Nine months later, in June 2015, Mayor Martin Walsh and his team launched the Action Plan to End Veteran and Chronic Homelessness.

“Homelessness is ended through permanent housing and services,” said Laila Bernstein, adviser to the mayor for the administration’s program to end chronic homelessness, “and the pathway to get there is extremely difficult, is extremely chaotic. It’s hard for the most vulnerable among the homeless population to make it through the system, and we’re not necessarily getting people what they need as fast as they need it.”

Chronic homelessness, as defined by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, involves individuals who have been without housing for a year or more, either consistently or episodically. The Walsh team hopes its plan will eliminate the problem by 2018.

As to veterans, Boston has ended chronic homelessness in that sector, administration members said at a roundtable of city officials and homeless advocates last Wednesday, by finding permanent housing and services for 717 veterans who had been homeless since July 2014. The administration is building on its veterans model to address chronic homelessness on a city-wide scale. The city has housed 172 homeless people in the last eight months, with hundreds still filtering in and out of emergency shelters.

All of the beds lost on Long Island have been replaced with the opening of a new men’s homeless shelter on Southampton Street in January 2015, the conversion of the Woods-Mullen Shelter from coed to women-only, and the opening of other locations throughout the city, according to city housing chief Sheila Dillon.

Attempts to settle programs into neighborhoods can face community opposition. In April, Bay Cove proposed opening a 60-bed detox facility on Freeport Street in Dorchester where it found firm resistance from concerned neighbors and City Councillor Frank Baker.

The Andrew House program run by Bay Cove had operated for 26 years on Long Island until its shuttering. Proponents planned to build out a structure at 43 Freeport St. to reopen a program that had effectively been stalled for more than over a year. Facing opposition to the proposal, which would have provided shelter for those undergoing voluntary detoxification, the group withdrew its plans. Dillon said Bay Cove has since identified a place for a 60-bed facility outside of Boston.

“I’m certainly disappointed in some of the areas that we want to set and locate programs,” Walsh said. He spoke of a homelessness program in Dorchester that Bay Cove was leaving while he was a state representative, after which he supported Pine Street Inn constructing six-apartment housing program on Pleasant Street that faced a significant amount of opposition. Following a narrow community vote in favor, “we’ve never heard a complaint about it since then,” Walsh said.

When neighborhoods objects to needed facilities, Walsh said, “I guess I’m disappointed by it, because I know different communities that need different services. But I also see the community side. They’re concerned, I know. They’re fearful of the unknown. I think that part of our ability is where we site these programs...The programs that we’re trying to site in neighborhoods, those are generally the next step transition programs.”

The city is working toward cohesion across its homelessness and aid programming, including the installation of a software system that can match homeless individuals with available and appropriate housing.

The need for shelters and programming continues, Walsh said, in part due to the continuing opiate crisis and a large number of Boston-based support programs acting as a draw for those outside the city.

Though data is still being collected, officials estimate that up to half of those making their way through detox and addiction programs in Boston are from outside city limits and straining the system.

A personalized assessment triage program is helping to identify homeless people’s needs as they enter shelters, and several housing “surges” are being conducted outside shelters to walk people through the bureaucracy of obtaining housing vouchers and finding more stable living situations.