At his news conference in Baltimore last week, President Clinton reminded us of a chilling reality of American life. "It's important that we remember," he declared, "that anyone can become homeless."

The President and U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo had come to a Boys and Girls Club gymnasium in my Congressional District to announce $850 million in competitive, federal grants. The money will help more than 330,000 homeless Americans get housing, job training, child care, mental health services and substance abuse treatment.

"The President's policies recognize that if we provide homeless people with the help they need, they can overcome their problems and work their way out of poverty," Secretary Cuomo affirmed. "I have met men and women across this nation who would be dead today, or would be living on the streets, if not for our programs."

President Clinton's "continuum of care" strategy, and parallel programs in Baltimore and more than 300 other communities nationwide, recognize that homelessness is not simply a housing problem. Rather, the hundreds of thousands of Americans without any place to call home tonight confront a shortage of affordable housing in the midst of often disabling life conditions.

Prior to the President's funding announcement, for example, we were privileged to meet a Baltimore woman, Ms. Christa Spangler, who was driven from middle-class security by divorce and depression, problems which she compounded by alcohol abuse. Contrary to the stereotypical images of "homeless persons," however, Ms. Spangler was not uneducated, she was not insane and - like most of the poor and homeless in this country - she is not Black.

We all should commend the courage and fortitude Christa Spangler demonstrated in her climb back to self-sufficiency. She acknowledges, however, that she could not have done so without the help of Marian House, a HUD-sponsored program on Baltimore's Gorsuch Avenue.

I applaud and support President Clinton's compassion and leadership in increasing federal assistance for the homeless in the face of opposition within Congress and his own Office of Management and Budget. The President and HUD Secretary Cuomo understand that, despite general prosperity, too many Americans remain trapped in a web of substandard wages, limited affordable housing and personal problems which push them over the edge.

The statistics about the homeless reveal a diverse cross-section of America: 40% are alcohol dependent and at least 25% are mentally disabled. It is worth noting, however, that 25% to 40% of homeless Americans work; 30% of the homeless are veterans; 30% are families with children and 25% of the homeless are children.

Despite President Clinton's increased commitment to restoring our homeless neighbors to self-sufficiency, these statistics are likely to worsen in the near future as job-training and the availability of day care fail to keep pace with the wholesale dismantling of our welfare system.

On December 2nd, the Children's Defense Fund and the National Coalition for the Homeless released a joint report showing that - despite drops in welfare caseloads across the country - up to one-half of the families leaving welfare rolls don't have jobs. Among recipients who do find jobs, the report concluded, 71 percent earn less than $250 per week - an amount less than the poverty level for a family of three.

According to the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, perhaps two million Americans have been homeless at some time during this year. As many as three million people are paying more than one-half of their income for rent. A missed paycheck, a health crisis or an unpaid bill is all that it takes to push many poor families into homelessness.

We must learn from these relentless statistics, and we must respond to the problems they represent. At the same time, however, we must never forget that the "homeless" are human beings. These are our neighbors, people just like you and me. They are not an abstract, statistical phenomenon of modern American life.

We should pay heed to the penetrating observations of the Algerian Nobel laureate, Albert Camus, who declared that "when death becomes a matter of statistics and administration, it means that life is abstract too. The life of each person cannot be other than abstract as soon as one starts making it conform to an ideology....No wonder that these silhouettes, henceforth blind and deaf, terrorized, fed by ration tickets, their entire lives summed up in a police questionnaire, can then be treated as anonymous abstractions...."

Mr. Camus was speaking in 1947 of persons displaced from home and country by the horrors of WWII, but his insight aptly describes the dehumanized status of Americans dislodged from their homes at the onset of 1999. The holidays we are now sharing as a nation are a time of joy, but the severe cold of winter reminds us that, for too many Americans, they also are a time of trial and death.

When I think about all of the Americans who lack shelter, I will always recall the words of Christa Spangler. "Marian House saved my life," she attested. "Without it, I would be dead today."

America's willingness to respond to the life struggles of our homeless neighbors is a valid indication of our collective humanity and our shared destiny as a nation. We all should remember the example of Christa Spangler's triumph when we see people waiting in line for a warm meal at "soup kitchens" like Our Daily Bread. They are people with problems; but they also are people who, given a chance, can become self-sufficient and contribute.

The wealth and power of America allow us to provide decent, affordable housing for all of our people. Our dignity as a nation demands it. At this time of year, when every faith tradition affirms that dignity and acknowledges our intrinsic worth as human beings, it is time for America to synchronize its conduct with its conscience.

During this season of universal renewal, it is time for Americans to commit ourselves to the aspirations once expressed by an unknown Christian poet: "When the song of the angels is still," the poet wrote, "when the star in the sky is gone, when the kings and princes are home and the shepherds are back with their sheep, the work of Christmas begins: to find the lost, to heal the broken, to feed the hungry, to release the prisoner, to rebuild the nations, to bring peace among people and to make music in the heart."