A Florida bishop minced no words in addressing the challenge the homeless present to our society and the responsibility of Christians.

“City officials nationwide consider the homeless to be a problem, a blight, an insoluble challenge,” Bishop Robert Lynch of St. Petersburg, Fla., said in a column posted on the diocesan Web site about six weeks ago. “Christians should consider the homeless as more perfect reflections of ‘the least of my brothers and sisters’ to whom our outreach reflects our fundamental belief that all of us are made in the image and likeness of God.”

Bishop Lynch’s column continued: “I am convinced that both on Judgment Day and in history we will most likely be judged not by the things which we might have considered personally important to ourselves in life but how we took care of others less fortunate. The faces which may haunt each of us on Judgment Day may well be those people who have approached us for assistance and were turned away.

“Given that our very Lord was homeless for the first several months, at least, of his life, we are impelled to consider the plight of those who have no nest to lay their heads at the end of the day.”

He added: “If we work together to solve this challenge, then we need not fear Judgment Day and having to ask the question: ‘Lord, when did we see you sick? Lord, when did we see you naked? Lord, when did we see you hungry and thirsty? Lord, when did we see you homeless?’ ”

Bishop Lynch’s column addressed the large numbers of homeless people living in a “tent city” in St. Petersburg at the time, and it followed a police raid that had occurred on the “tent city.” The bishop offered the services of Catholic Charities to find temporary housing for the people and asked Catholics “to partner” with their churches to provide homeless shelters.

But the challenge Bishop Lynch spoke about is not restricted to St. Petersburg. It reaches into practically every community in this country, and the numbers of homeless people are staggering.

The National Alliance to End Homelessness reported in January that there were 744,000 homeless people in the United States in 2005. Most were single adults, but about 41 percent were in families, the report said.

This study was followed in February by a report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development saying there were 754,147 sheltered and unsheltered homeless people in 2005. The HUD report also said there were 315,000 more homeless people than there were available beds in shelters and transitional housing. Nationwide, the report noted, there were about 438,300 emergency and transitional beds in 2005 to provide shelter to the homeless.

Bishop Lynch noted one misconception about homeless people: that “they are too lazy to find jobs and work.” He said that many who lived in “tent city” in St. Petersburg, Fla., have jobs and earn money. But some “are forced into homelessness because they cannot afford shelter due to the lack of affordable housing.”

The fact that many homeless people do work was also underscored in a 2005 homeless census issued by the Coalition for the Homeless in Louisville. This report said 28 percent of the 11,251 homeless served by shelters in Louisville said they had jobs, but their earnings were below what was needed to afford a two-bedroom apartment.

Addressing the challenge of homelessness is a complex issue, but it is widely recognized that one solution is having more affordable housing. “The driver in homelessness is the affordable housing crisis,” said Nan Roman, president of the National Alliance to End Homelessness. “If we don’t do something to address this crisis in affordable housing, we are not going to solve homelessness.”

In Kentucky, a state affordable housing trust fund is one response to this crisis. In Louisville, Mayor Jerry Abramson has asked the Metro Council to allocate $1 million as “seed” money for creation of a Louisville Metro Affordable Housing Trust Fund. He also asked the private sector to match this amount, and he said the fund could be enhanced with monies authorized by the Kentucky General Assembly.

Voicing support for local affordable housing trust funds is one way Catholics can respond to homelessness. There are, of course, other ways, such supporting or volunteering at organizations that serve the homeless, such as the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Franciscan Shelter House and the St. John Center for the homeless in Louisville.

All are ways of serving, as Bishop Lynch said, the “least of my brothers and sisters.”