The Social Safety Net and U.S. Congregations: Roles, Characteristics, and Trends, 1998-2012

Background:The public social safety net in the U.S. is largely means-tested, tied to work, and temporary. Low-income families use multiple strategies to package together a sufficient safety net, through public benefits, employment, family support, and private services like food banks or shelters, yet we know relatively little about private services. In this paper we examine the role of religious congregations as providers of social services and whether that role has changed over time. Previous research has shown that more than half of U.S. churches provide some kind of social services, but with limited staff support or financial resources. In light of the 2008-2010 recession and changing political dynamics, we use more recent data to investigate if congregation provision of social services in 2012 was generally depressed from previous levels (e.g., by decreased budgets) or stimulated (e.g., by increased community need), and what predicts the types of service provided.  

Methods: We use data from approximately 4,000 congregations in the National Congregations Study, a nationally representative sample of religious congregations in the US, collected in 1998, 2006, and 2012. Social service provision is measured with: (1) the percentage of total budget that is spent on social services, (2) whether congregations had a staff member spending more than 25% time on social service provision, and (3) whether food or housing services were provided in the past year. We estimate whether these outcomes are associated with interview years, as well as religious tradition (Catholic, Evangelical, Black Protestant, Moderate/Liberal, Non-Christian) and neighborhood poverty rate at the census tract level. We also include covariates that account for characteristics of the congregation and its members. We use pooled OLS models with year fixed effects to examine whether outcomes at the 2012 interview are associated with increases in social service provision relative to pre-recession years, and the extent to which social service involvement is associated with denomination and local economic hardship.

Results: We find that programmatic costs dedicated to social services increased nearly 40% in real dollars between 1998-2012. Congregations were significantly more likely in 2012 relative to 2006 or 1998 to have social service provision, whether measured by budget, staff, or type of service. Outcomes did not vary significantly by the congregation’s neighborhood poverty rate. Evangelical congregations had lower odds of providing food or housing-related services in 2012, all else equal.

Implications: In the context of increasing cuts to public assistance programs, low-income individuals will likely continue to need to package together a social safety net from many sources. Our research highlights the trend of congregations providing more social services, including basic services like food and housing. However, the data we investigate do not identify the quality or intensity of these services, if recipients share the religious tradition of the service providers, or to what extent recipients of services are proselytized. Our findings suggest social workers should pay attention to the increasingly prominent role of congregation-provided services, both as components of community safety nets and as sites for collaboration, evaluation, and advocacy.