Oasis Housing Corporation: from solutions to dissolution in a faith-based organization (1).(Organization overview)

Publication: Urban Anthropology & Studies of Cultural Systems & World Economic Development

Publication Date: 22-JUN-06

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There is no doubt that homelessness costs us a lot of money and will cost us even more in the future, but no one is in a position to say exactly how high the costs are or will be. Part of the problem in trying to determine the costs is that most of the annual expenditure on problems of homelessness (about two-thirds of the total) is borne by the private sector, principally the churches, and most of the remainder is borne by state and local government, not by the federal government.

(Wright et al. 1998:214, emphasis added)

Introduction

In examining contemporary American life, anthropologists and other social scientists continually demonstrate their concern with how the basic needs of individuals and families articulate with programs provided by governments, by for-profit corporate enterprises, and by non-profit agencies. In a nation where two-thirds of all families live in their own (or the bank's) homes, the lack of culturally appropriate shelter remains one of the most critical and visible of these basic needs. As a result, efforts to house and care for "homeless" persons cost billions of dollars each year. In America, "homelessness" is not just an individual or family problem, but also has many of the elements of a culture-specific syndrome--that is, what might be acceptable or tolerated in places like New Delhi is deemed unacceptable or even defined as illegal by the authorities in places like Dallas.

A number of ethnographic studies have been published in recent years (e.g., Dehavenon 1996; Dordick 1997; Glasser and Bridgman 1999; Hopper 2003; Rosenthal 1994) that document the ways in which individuals and families have become homeless, the ways in which they cope with the condition of being homeless, and the many ways in which governmental agencies and non-profit enterprises respond to the homeless "problem." From these studies, and from many other sources, we now have a good picture of the life careers of homeless persons / families and a fairly good understanding of the public- and private-sector structures created to care for them.

Nevertheless, the ethnography of homelessness in America is incomplete. Although we have numerous studies of the homeless, their struggles with street life and their movements through the diverse agencies dedicated to meeting their needs, we know almost nothing about the decision-making that goes on behind the closed doors of board rooms in the secular- and faith-based agencies that constitute the "continuum of care" for homelessness. This article contributes to closing the gap in the ethnography of the homeless by examining the case of the Oasis Housing Corporation, a faith-based transitional housing operation located in the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas, Texas. We focus on the decision-making processes of its Board of Directors during their efforts to expand their programs in "transitional housing for working homeless families" and we see how their failure to resolve fundamental structural issues led, in the end, to the demise of this faith-based organization.

Homelessness in Dallas

One common way to describe responses to homelessness is in terms of what the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) department of the federal government defines as the Continuum of Care. According to the FEDERAL HOMELESSNESS RESOURCE GUIDE: ARKANSAS, NEW MEXICO, LOUISIANA, OKLAHOMA, AND TEXAS (updated August 17, 2005):

The Continuum of Care approach helps communities plan for and provide a full range of emergency, transition, and permanent housing and service resources to address the various needs of homeless persons. HUD believes the best approach for alleviating homelessness is through a community-based process that provides a comprehensive response to the different needs of homeless persons. The fundamental components of a Continuum of Care system are:

* Outreach and assessment to identify a homeless person's needs;

* Immediate (emergency) shelter as a safe, decent alternative to the streets;

* Transitional housing with appropriate supportive services to help people reach independent living;

* Permanent housing or permanent supportive housing. (2)

In Dallas, the Continuum of Care presently includes daytime outreach and supportive services provided by the city government and by both secular- and faith-based non-profit organizations; nighttime shelters operated by non-profits, a significant majority of which are faith-based; temporary residential units in which individuals and families (especially women and their children) can spend from a few days to a few weeks; a small number of longer-term transitional housing units; subsidized (e.g., Section 8) housing, whether in apartments or houses; and individual homes available for less-than-market rates through governmental agencies such as the Dallas Housing Authority or faith-based agencies such as Habitat for Humanity (cf. Kemper 1998).

What local political leaders deemed to be a serious "homelessness problem" first came to the fore for public debate and governmental response during Dallas's preparations for the 1994 World Cup Soccer tournament. The presence of hundreds of individuals and families living below the bridges of Interstate 45 and Interstate 30 just east of downtown Dallas was seen by community leaders as blighting Dallas's "image" as an international-class city. To deal with this problem, during 1993 and 1994 the City of Dallas staff sought opinions from a wide range of experts and from the public at large. (3) Despite lawsuits from affluent advocates for the homeless, the City bulldozed the shacks below the 1-45 and 1-30 bridges, cleared out and fenced off that area, and urged its residents to relocate to a new homeless shelter facility south of I-30 (out of the sight of visitors to downtown and to the Fair Park soccer venue east of downtown).

According to the most recent point-in-time count for which summary data are available (January 2005), (4) the homeless population in Dallas is not unlike that in other urban areas in the United States. Two-thirds of the local homeless population is composed of members of ethnic minorities, with the single largest group (55%) being African American. The survey also revealed that two-thirds (66%) of the homeless are males. Of the group surveyed, adults accounted for 79%; the remaining 21% constitutes a dependent population doubly at risk in their homeless situation. In fact, 14% of the adult respondents said that they had minor children with them.

Among the persons surveyed, 53% indicated that they had been homeless for less than one year; a significantly larger proportion (67%) reported that they were currently unemployed or underemployed. With respect to their housing arrangements, 48% of the respondents reported that they live in shelters, while another 26% reported that they live in transitional housing or permanent supportive housing situations. Most of the remainder (17%) reported that they lived outdoors or in abandoned buildings, with a few in treatment centers (4%) or motels (1%). It should be noted, however, that the point-in-time count has no way to ascertain the number of homeless persons who are living "doubled-up," that is, temporarily housed with a friend or family member, but with no place of their own.

Although the City of Dallas and other governmental entities have primary legal authority to deal with the homeless population when local ordinances are violated, faith-based non-profit agencies play a significant role in the Continuum of Care system designed to care for the homeless. These organizations collectively spend millions of dollars...

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