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Shelters, Soup Kitchens, and Supportive Housing: An Open Systems Analysis of the Field of Homeless Assistance Organizations Author: Nicole Esparza Dissertation School: Princeton University Pages: 146 Publication Date: September 2007 Availability: Access Number: 10835 Abstract: This dissertation analyzes nonprofit organizations that assist the homeless in 26 U.S. metropolitan areas from 1989 to 2002. The primary objective of this project is to explore how social and political context affect the interorganizational dynamics and distribution of homeless services. To achieve this end, I utilize a multi-method approach consisting of 60 interviews with executive directors, observations of city-wide task forces, and multiple sources of original time-series data on financial, operational, spatial, and network aspects of 4,765 organizations. These data provide analytical leverage to examine previously overlooked processes and the multilevel context of the sample offers methodological improvements over previous studies. In chapter 2, I use time-series analysis to demonstrate the unintended consequences of the "charitable choice" policy on the mortality of organizations. As intended, charitable choice increased the survival odds of faith-based organizations relative to their secular rivals. However, this has led to the unintended consequence of relatively fewer rehabilitative social services via the "hitchhiking" mechanism. In chapter 2, I compare the prevalence of services for homeless youth in 26 metropolitan areas. I find that politics and supply measures have a much greater effect on the prevalence of programs than the need for services (as measured by at-risk populations). The fourth chapter analyzes the spatial distribution of organizations within metropolitan areas. At both the micro and macro levels, I find evidence of "not in my backyard" or NIMBYism, whereby powerful neighborhoods mobilize to keep homeless services out. Chapter 5 examines three interfaith networks providing homeless services in the Detroit metropolitan area. Although churches show a tendency to collaborate with peers from the same tradition, the most salient aspect of this distinction appeases to be not theology but race, a finding that cannot be attributed to segregations since the model controls for spatial proximity. As a whole, the dissertation employs an open systems approach to the study of nonprofits, which are often the subjects of case studies. Understanding population of organizations can add to our knowledge of nonprofit environments, population change, geographic concentration, and interorganizational relations. |
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