The Role of Religious Organizations in Community Initiatives to Feed and House the Homeless

Author: Laura Stephens

Dissertation School: University of Arizona

Abstract:

Recent congressional initiatives requiring the devolution of the operation of many social services from the federal to the local level, combined with the passage of Charitable Choice legislation that allows churches and other religiously affiliated organizations to compete for government contracts, has led to an increased need for research on faith-based social service providers. However, very little is known about the distinctive characteristics of faith-based social service providers or the extent to which these organizations will be useful in filling the gap left by the exit of the federal government from the direct delivery of many services.

Findings from the National Congregations Study suggest that while the majority (57 percent) of individual congregations engage in service activities, these services are most often small in scale and directed at meeting the temporary or emergency needs of their clients. While these results indicate it is unlikely individual congregations would be able to perform service activities of the scope and duration called for by many government programs, the potential for faith-based organizations to provide services on a large scale is increased when congregations collaborate on service delivery with other organizations. The purpose of the proposed research is to gain an empirically grounded understanding of the ways faith-based groups may successfully organize their service activities in conjunction with local governments, secular agencies, and other congregations working to help the same population of service recipients.

I propose to complete a series of in-depth interviews with organizational leaders from an existing network of congregations and other agencies who coordinate their efforts to provide food and temporary shelter to the homeless population in Tucson, Arizona. This network is comprised of seven congregations of various denominations whose service activities are organized through a non-denominational religious organization called Caridad. In turn, Caridad coordinates the preparation of food and transportation of the homeless to various service locations with the help of the city of Tucson and the local food bank. In total, Caridad oversees the serving of more than 20,000 meals a month, feeding 98 percent of the local homeless population. Interviews will be conducted with representatives from each organizational level of the network, including informants from the seven congregations, Caridad, and the government offices which provide support for these services. Interviews will focus on the ways in which individual organizations have successfully formed and maintained collaborative ties in order to facilitate service delivery on a large scale.

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