ABSTRACT
This last chapter first sums up the major findings when comparing the three shelters and their residents, and then draws out their implications for the role of religion and faith-based organizations in addressing homelessness. While there are commonalities across shelters, each shelter also has unique characteristics and specific findings pertaining to each. Overall, the authors find that the more residents or participants involve themselves in a program, and the more encompassing the program is in terms of religion, community, and structure, the more it helps residents tackle their issues and thus “grasp” their biographical trajectories. Religion has an added benefit in the sense that residents gain a different perspective on their past, present, and future lives, and also gain a sense of hope and self-worth, and self-reflexivity. The chapter ends the volume by describing the practical implications for the work similar shelters and faith-based nonprofits are doing, as well as the theoretical implications for the study of lived religion and religious conversion within religiously oriented nonprofits.
