About 180 people representing Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Hawaiian, Christian and Muslim faith-based groups filed into Central Union Church on Monday hoping to learn how they can reduce the largest per capita homeless population in the nation.

“People just don’t know what to do,” said Dean Sakamoto, chairman of Honpa Hongwanji Hawaii’s statewide social concerns committee.

At the daylong conference organized by Interfaith Alliance Hawaii and the Institute for Human Services, Sakamoto and others heard reasons why Hawaii’s homeless problem has gotten so big — and ways that faith-based groups can help, such as volunteering and by donating clothes, sheets, towels and food.

But Sakamoto and others also learned that there are no easy or quick ways for them to get large numbers of homeless people off of the streets and into long-term housing.

“I knew it was a complex problem,” Sakamoto said. “The solutions may be difficult.”

But just getting so many religious leaders together to focus on homelessness represented a sign of hope for attendees such as Daniel Kaneshiro, facilities pastor and director of First Assembly of God’s startup homeless program.

“I was inspired that at least there are conversations going on for collaborative efforts,” Kaneshiro said. “This problem is so big that we need everyone working together rather than (following) separate paths.”

Mayor Kirk Caldwell has asked church leaders to house a homeless family on their properties in converted shipping containers that he would provide, while clearing any permitting issues.

St. Elizabeth’s Episcopal Church on North King Street lets homeless people live in an 8-by-20-foot converted shipping container in its parking lot. But others have concerns that include issues of safety, liability and finding space in their parking lots.

State Attorney General Doug Chin told the gathering about his experience with homeless issues going back to his 14 years as a deputy city prosecutor, followed by his tenure as managing director.

He called homelessness “a polarizing issue.”

Despite a 1972 U.S. Supreme Court ruling against vagrancy laws, Chin said, “People are finally coming around to understanding that you can’t just arrest the homeless. To this day people just think, ‘Well, why don’t we just round them up? Let’s force them into the best housing we have, which is the jails.’ As insensitive as that comes across, that’s how many people view the subject. … They just feel an extreme sense of frustration.”

After his remarks, Chin told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that faith-based groups could help by partnering with social service agencies to help the homeless.

And he said they do face liability issues by “taking a homeless person onto their property.”

But overall, Chin said, “I’m just very encouraged to see people care enough about this topic.”

One morning this year the Honpa Hongwanji temple on Kauai found a dead homeless person who had been sleeping on the temple’s grounds, said Bishop Eric Matsumoto.

“It was an experience for the temple,” he said. “There was a sense of not knowing what to do.”

Kaneshiro, of First Assembly of God, senses the frustration.

But as people of faith, Kaneshiro said, “we’ve been given the charter to be compassionate. And compassion for the homeless starts with us as individuals.”