WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush announced $1 billion in federal aid for the homeless on Tuesday and asked Americans to dig deeper for charities suffering low donations due to the surge in giving for Sept. 11 victims.

At a pre-Thanksgiving visit to a local charity that provides food, medical care and counseling to the homeless and poor, the war against terrorism and the suicide plane attacks that killed some 4,500 people were uppermost in Bush's mind.

Even as he announced more than $1 billion in grants to help the homeless through the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Bush dwelled on the weeks since Sept. 11.

There's no question that our country has been deeply wounded, he told an audience of volunteers at the charity organization So Others Might Eat (SOME). After all, we were never used to being attacked. Never did we dream -- I certainly never dreamt that I'd be the president where there is a war on our homefront.

But the evildoers never really -- they must not have known who they were attacking. They must of kind of thought we were soft and hateful.

Calling the outpouring of support in the aftermath of the attacks outstanding, Bush said: People gave. They gave blood. They gave money. They gave time to help.

And he asked them to go on giving in order to keep the homefront secure, in order to make sure that we don't allow the terrorists to achieve any objective.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters a recent survey found 26 percent of Americans had stopped giving or reduced the amount of money they gave to charities they normally supported as a result of their increased donations for Sept. 11 charitable causes.

I have been disturbed by reports that charitable giving has dropped off, Bush said. I hope Americans will not substitute the gifts they have given in the aftermath of Sept. 11 for neighborhood groups. And so, therefore, I ask Americans to dig a little deeper in their pocket.

The White House simultaneously unveiled public service announcements in which the president and first lady Laura Bush thank Americans for giving to charities after Sept. 11 and urge them to find more ways to help those in need.

ARMIES OF COMPASSION

The ads were shot last week in a barn on Bush's Crawford, Texas, ranch and will air on major television networks through the holiday season. Other spots are in the works aimed at bolstering public support for the war on terrorism.

Pointing to the government's responsibility to support the armies of compassion, Bush described the $1 billion to help the homeless find emergency shelter, transitional housing and permanent homes as the largest such grant in the history of the country.

Before the announcement, Bush toured SOME, an interfaith organization made up of community-based volunteers and staff founded in 1970 by a group of ministers and priests as a soup kitchen. SOME provides 1,200 meals a day and offers clothing, shelter, showers and medical and dental care.

In mid-morning, from behind a table laden with turkey and all the trimmings, Bush asked: Anybody hungry?

Apparently not, because the president, who bestowed the traditional pardon on a Thanksgiving turkey at the White House on Monday, did not serve up any meals. He did quip: This wasn't the guy that came to the White House was it?

Bush also pressed for Senate passage of his faith-based initiative, a controversial plan to let churches, synagogues and mosques help deliver $250 billion in federal social programs that has raised questions about the Constitutional separation of church and state.

Religious conservatives also worry the lure of federal money will lead charities to abandon their spirituality, while libertarians wonder how government aid for charitable work will be separated from money for religious activities. Skeptics are concerned about how religious organizations will be defined.

Bush said he had been working closely with Democratic Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and Republican Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania on compromise legislation.

And so why doesn't Congress, in order to help fight poverty and fight hopelessness, do something smart with legislation and bring it to my desk, so I can sign it before Christmas? Bush asked. It makes a lot of sense.