Philanthropy and government shouldn’t be at odds, but there are some things the private sector can do that the public sector can’t.
Homelessness is a problem to which big city Democrats have recently devoted great attention and resources. Street conditions remain poor, though, and some may wonder whether private philanthropy can make headway where the public sector has failed.
Donors looking to make a dent in the homelessness problem should first focus on talent. The best leaders of homelessness programs serve on both the front lines and the front pages. Figures such as Reverend Andy Bales, the recently retired head of Los Angeles’ Union Rescue Mission, use their hard-won street cred to vouch for bourgeois values. Not everyone can pull that off. Many program leaders stay out of the headlines, either out of a sense of Christian humility, because navigating the daily chaos in their programs is consuming enough, or because they need to remain on speaking terms with the powers that be in their communities. But someone needs to speak up on behalf of work and sobriety. Homelessness-nonprofit CEOs passionate about bourgeois values used to be more common. Philanthropy should bolster their ranks.
Talented leaders aren’t always available where you want them. The American homeless-services landscape features a mismatch between talent and opportunity. New York City, in various poverty-related sectors, has talent to burn. Leaders like Geoffrey Canada and Eva Moskowitz could have succeeded in any profession but chose to tackle a pressing social challenge. But many philanthropists will find it hard to make a difference in homelessness in New York, at present, because the billions the city government spends annually on that problem crowd out private innovations.
Continue reading the entire piece here at the National Review Online (paywall)
______________________
Stephen Eide is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
Photo by kuarmungadd/iStock