Homeless Services Beyond Church and State

Traditionally, caring for the have-nots has been left to governments that apply tax revenue to the needs of "the poor" while some charitable, usually religious, groups make up the difference (often with government grants).

This old model has served the political needs of government well and served the mission of church groups well. In many cases people have been helped in times of need by both government and the church-dominated charitable sector very well.

More recently, professional non-church service providers have emerged, often with the assistance of government funding but more significantly through charitable giving from the community and corporate sector. They have brought with them advancements in how to respond effectively to the more complex needs of homeless people, beyond food and shelter.

There have even been attempts by the for-profit sector to get in on the government dollars and provide services to homeless people, but their offerings, to my knowledge, have been very limited outside of fulfilling a contract to do A, B and C.

So which sector of support services has already and can in the future make the greatest difference in the lives of homeless people?

In terms of long-term heavy lifting, I'd nominate the old-fashioned church-based services. As flawed as they are, they've provided services for a long time and have done a lot of good work. In terms of who we should be looking to when it comes to innovation, I'd vote for non-church charitable service providers.

Then again, if one way of providing services were best, we wouldn't need the others.

What holds government services back is the fact that they're vulnerable to politicians' mandate to appeal to their voting bases, not the actual need in their communities. What holds church service providers back is the extremely slow pace of institutional change and their tendency to prioritize organizational missions over personal goals. What holds non-church based charities back is the need to be in what I call two businesses at the same time. That is, being in the business of raising funds and at the same time being in the business of providing services for homeless people.

Some charities make a killing in fund-raising but offer really poor services to homeless people. Other charities offer world-class services to homeless people but are not very good at chasing the charity dollar or government funding.

In the middle of the two extremes is where you often find the real gems. They are innovative, local and successful offerings to homeless people that really make a difference. We should be paying more attention — and volunteering and donating funds — to these charities. They're the ones that remain agile in their response to homelessness. Do you know any?

I've used a lot of generalizations in this post, even though I know that generalizations are inherently flawed. But what I've outlined has been my experience and helped form my perspective. What do you think?

Photo credit: KitAy