Executive Summary
by:
Laudan Y. Aron and Patrick T. Sharkey,
The Urban Institute
March 19, 2002
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One of the most dramatic findings to emerge from the 1996 National Survey
of Homeless Assistance Providers and Clients (NSHAPC) is the tremendous growth
in the number and variety of homeless assistance programs during the late
1980s and early 1990s. While much of this growth has been fueled by
new investments of public funds, most faith-based non-profits operate with
little or no government funding, yet they play a critical role in helping
homeless people.
This study examines data from NSHAPC to determine more thoroughly the role
that faith-based programs play in the larger context of homeless
assistance. The study has an explicit focus on comparing homeless
assistance programs administered by faith-based versus secular non-profit
service agencies. It provides a basic but comprehensive picture of
the numbers and characteristics of the two types of homeless assistance
programs.
The NSHAPC data are drawn from a comprehensive nationally representative
survey of programs providing homeless assistance services and the clients
of these programs. All questions used for this analysis come from the
survey of program administrators.
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NSHAPC documented just under 40,000 homeless assistance programs operating
on an average day in February 1996.
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Faith-based non-profits run about a third of all programs, including the
majority of all food programs and one-quarter of all shelters and drop-in
centers. Secular non-profits run almost half of all homeless assistance
programs administering the majority of housing programs and almost 40 percent
of all health programs.
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Faith-based programs administer a greater proportion of programs in urban
areas than they do in rural areas, and also run a larger share of programs
in the south than they do in other regions of the country.
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In general, faith-based providers serve a more diverse group of clients than
do secular non-profits. The proportion of programs serving each client
group — single men, single women, females with children, other
households with children, and youth — is higher among faith-based
programs than it is among secular non-profits.
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The vast majority of food programs serve single men. Almost 95 percent
of faith-based food programs serve this group, while 87 percent of secular
programs do. Housing programs are the least likely to serve single
men.
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The client group least likely to be served by either type of sponsoring agency
is unaccompanied youth. Thirty-six percent of faith-based programs
serve this group, compared to 31 percent of secular programs.
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Over all programs, faith-based providers are much less likely to have a special
focus than are secular providers. Only 12 percent of faith-based food
programs have a special focus, compared to 32 percent of secular programs.
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Housing and health programs are more likely than food programs to specialize,
no matter what type of agency sponsors them.
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A substantial proportion of secular and government programs run shelters
specifically for victims of domestic violence. Faith-based shelters
are much less likely to have a special focus, and only a small share focus
on domestic violence.
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With few exceptions such as food and clothing, secular non-profits tend to
report higher levels of client need than do faith-based non-profits.
Several factors may account for this, including differences in the
types of programs run by faith-based versus secular non-profits, as well
as the types and diversity of their clients.
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Faith-based agencies are more likely than secular agencies to provide basic
services such as food and clothing, and are less likely to provide all other,
more specific types of services.
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The largest source of clients for faith-based programs is self-referral,
but for secular programs the most common source is through another program.
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Clients of housing programs are more likely to come from another program,
while clients of food programs are more likely to self-refer.
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Individuals leaving faith-based emergency shelter programs are more likely
than those in secular programs to go into transitional housing and to the
streets or other outside locations, and they are less likely to go to a family
or friend’s house. Family clients are more likely to go to another
emergency or transitional shelter or an outside location, and they are less
likely to go to private or government housing or to the home of a friend
or family member.
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In general, clients of faith-based and secular transitional housing
programs are very similar in terms of where clients go after leaving the
program.
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The majority (62 percent) of faith-based programs receive no government funding
at all and the vast majority (90 percent) receive less that one-half of their
funding from government sources. Among secular non-profits, less than
one-quarter receive no government funds and only 40 percent receive less
than one-half of their funds from government agencies.
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Twenty-two percent of secular non-profits rely on government funds exclusively,
compared to less than 3 percent of faith-based programs.
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Faith-based and other community-based non-profit organizations have a long
history of helping people in need. The NSHAPC data analyzed here provide
yet more evidence of the continuing importance of faith-based organizations
in serving people who are homeless or on the brink of homelessness.
Many observers believe that the country has done an adequate job of building
up an emergency response system for homeless people and must now go beyond
this by focusing on prevention and longer-lasting housing and support
services. Adequate and affordable housing, a living wage, and critical
support services such as childcare and substance abuse treatment, are key
to reducing homelessness. But the more basic support services provided
by faith-based agencies are likely to remain a key ingredient in helping
prevent poor people from becoming homeless and ensuring that those who do
become homeless do so only once and for a short period of time. The
Compassion Capital Fund, a new program created in the President’s budget
for 2002, will match private giving with federal dollars to “provide
grants to charitable organizations to emulate model social service programs
and to encourage research on the best practices of social service
organizations…”
Future research on homeless assistance programs should examine whether the
clients of faith-based, secular non-profit, and government-run agencies differ
in fundamental ways and whether the relationships between agencies and their
clients vary by type of program or administering agency. More work
is also needed on how different types of agencies choose their focus (in
response to current funding streams, the agency’s basic mission, assessments
of needs within the community, etc.), and on the effectiveness of social
service programs run by faith-based organizations. Finally, it would
also be useful to know if clients are even aware of the faith-based versus
secular status of non-profit agencies, and if so, whether (and why) they
prefer one over the other.
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