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Religious organizations are providing more than half of the emergency shelter beds for homeless people in major cities across the country, a new Baylor University study shows.
In a preliminary study of 11 U.S. cities, 58 percent of emergency beds for the homeless were at faith-based organizations. That percentage ranged widely across the cities, with 90 percent of emergency beds in Omaha, Neb., provided by faith groups and 33 percent in Portland, Ore.
“Some cities are able to have much more of a faith-based response than others,” said Byron Johnson, director of Baylor’s Institute for Studies of Religion, at the Wednesday (Feb. 1) release of the findings at the National Press Club. “Not one size fits all.”
The report found that cities with higher participation by religious groups had lower percentages of unsheltered homeless people.
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