When Shelters Compete, Who Wins?

Homelessness is a multi-layered, complicated issue. Experiencing it is tough... no question. But providing services to the homeless is challenging in entirely different ways. Collaborating with other service providers is important. But when resources are scarce, maintaining an edge over other the "competition" may become an even bigger priority for some.

In many communities, people serving the homeless can be so overwhelmed trying to meet the need that there is little time for petty arguments.

At least that's what I always thought.

I came across an op-ed piece in the Indiana News & Tribune today about an egotistcal shelter director who is opposed to the creation of a new shelter in town. It's a long story, and you can read the drama here, but here's the gist of it: To protest the opening of this new shelter, she threatened to close her shelter for the weekend (I know, I don't get it either). Here's what went down from there:

It turns out that the Haven House Director did not close for the weekend, but instead, one-upped herself by having a Haven House van "deliver" eight of the homeless persons from her shelter to the New Albany Salvation Army at 3:30 on that Friday afternoon. Her intention was to catch the Salvation Army off-guard and prove that they couldn't handle persons in need. Before she scheduled the van to arrive at the Salvation Army, she called the Publisher of the Evening News to stage a media coupe in an attempt to set up the Salvation Army to fail.

The director of a homeless shelter was using her own clients to put egg on the face of another organization that serves the homeless.

Luckily, this shelter director's plan did not work. And now, we're all on to her games.

To be sure: I don't believe this "fighting shelter" phenomenon is the norm, this extreme example is just one outlier. If anything, this situation seems to be more about personality defects and is in no way representative of homeless service providers.

Extreme as this story may be, it raises an interesting question: where does the competition between shelters end and the collaboration begin? When resources are scarce, and fundraising is cut-throat, shelters (and non-profits, for that matter) are essentially competing for funds, volunteers, and/or reputation. For example: Which shelter in town spends their money most effectively? Who has the highest rate of providing housing? Who is most deserving of my money?

Organizations understand the need to collaborate with other shelters. But to some extent, there may be a perceived need to maintain a certain edge over the competition to stay afloat financially.

So what's the take-away here? I think this is a good reminder that collaborating effectively, keeping relationships supportive and complementary, can take a great deal of time and effort. But no one organization is going to solve homelessness in a vacuum.

When effective leaders and organizations make collaborations work effectively, people take notice. Sure, it takes time and effort, but being a part of a high-functioning network of services that makes real progress towards addressing homelessness is the best kind of "edge" any organization could want.