Does local community effort relate to neighbors' homelessness?

Abstract

Interjurisdictional spillovers can compromise the effectiveness of homeless assistance policy and service provision, as individuals that become homeless in service deserts are forced to move to nearby communities that provide services they require. The resulting migration causes difficulties in accurately measuring the effectiveness of homeless assistance policies and hinders the establishment of measures aimed at ending homelessness at a regional level. The present investigation addresses these challenges by exploring how local community effort aided by government and nonprofit organizations relates to interjurisdictional outcomes. Our findings indicate that an increase in homeless services offered by nonprofit organizations in a community relates with fewer services (i.e., reduction in total beds per homeless person) and more homelessness in neighboring communities. Further, simultaneously increasing the number of both government and nonprofit organizations mitigates some of the negative spillovers. These findings augment the results yielded by previous research in this field, as they indicate that cross-sector collaboration can benefit the broader community and is more effective in reaching vulnerable populations and reducing homelessness than investing in government and nonprofit-led efforts executed independently.