ABSTRACT
A central question driving this project is: does the provision of low-income housing lead nonprofits into public policy-making networks that may, over time, give them access to the broader governing regime? Some critics of public funding for faith-based nonprofits fear that one outcome of such funding would be a blurring of boundaries between church and state (Goetz 1992; Chaves et al. 2004). Others argue that faith-based nonprofits limit their activities to the provision of services and do not venture into policy or political arenas. While it is certainly plausible that faith-based organizations (FBOs) will use their service function to gain greater access to, and power in, policy and politics relating not only to housing services, but also to the larger urban governing system, there is surprisingly little empirical evidence about whether this actually occurs. Work by a number of scholars has examined the governing role of community-based organizations generally but not of FBOs specifically (e.g., Smith and Evans 2001; LeRoux 2007; Silverman 2008), suggesting that there is a place for nonprofits in local governing regimes, particularly in the areas of housing policy, social justice issues, and community development. This chapter focuses on the political and policy-related activities of nonprofit housing providers, to explore the extent to which their efforts extend beyond the provision of housing and related services, and explicitly examines potential differences between faith-based and secular nonprofits.
