The nationwide effort to end homelessness hit a major milestone Wednesday, with Virginia becoming the first state to house every homeless veteran seeking help.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe announced that the state has provided housing to more than 1,400 homeless veterans during the past year and now has sufficient capacity to house any newly homeless veteran in less than 90 days.

That means the state has achieved the “functional zero,” meeting the federal definition of ending homelessness among veterans.

“This is an important victory in our ongoing efforts to make our commonwealth the best place on earth for veterans to live, work and raise a family,” McAuliffe said in his address on Veterans Day. “This successful effort will serve as the launching pad for our next goal of functionally ending chronic homelessness among all Virginians by the end of 2017.”

Virginia’s achievement is part of a nationwide push to end veteran homelessness by the end of 2015 — an initiative that Honolulu has joined when Mayor Kirk Caldwell signed on to the Mayor’s Challenge to End Veteran Homelessness earlier this year.

On Thursday, Caldwell is visiting Washington, D.C., and meeting with officials from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to discuss Honolulu’s effort to curb homelessness.

According to Scott Morishige, the governor’s coordinator on homelessness, there are 55 homeless veterans who are still unsheltered in Oahu, a drop from 149 people at the beginning of the year.