Where's the ‘Faith’ in ‘Faith-Based’ Organisations? The Evolution and Practice of Faith-Based Homelessness Services in the UK

Abstract

Drawing upon a qualitative exploration of the role of faith-based organisations (FBOs) in service provision for homeless people in the UK, this paper examines the ways in which the ‘faith’ in ‘faith-based’ services is articulated and experienced ‘on the ground’. It demonstrates that the ‘F’ in FBO is expressed in a myriad of nuanced ways, and that the strength of ‘coupling’ between many welfare agencies and organised religion has diminished over time such that some projects’ faith affiliation or heritage is now evident in palimpsest only. Homeless people do in fact often find it difficult to discern tangible differences between avowedly ‘faith-based’ and ‘secular’ projects, given a blurring of boundaries between the religious and the secular. These findings problematise FBO typologies, and highlight the complexity and fluidity of the very concept of ‘FBO’ itself. Certainly, they suggest that the differences between faith-based and secular provision should not be exaggerated, whilst recognising the importance of faith to the motivations of many service providers and the potential value of the (optional) ‘spiritual’ support offered by most FBOs.

Homelessness and social control: a typology

“…Such an approach is characteristic of many traditional low threshold night shelters, soup runs, soup kitchens, and also some day centres (Johnsen et al, 2005a(Johnsen et al, , 2005bLane & Power, 2009;May et al, 2006). These (predominantly but not exclusively faith-based) services tend to adopt an 'unconditional' open-door approach, which aims to welcome all regardless of their personal circumstances and hold no expectation, even if they may still 'hope' , that service users will engage with support services and/or alter their lifestyle (Cloke et al, 2005;Johnsen, 2014). Most aim to foster a therapeutic environment or 'sanctuary' (Bowpitt et al, 2013) which avoids 'pressuring' homeless people to alter their behaviour, but rather focuses on supporting them to change if and when they self-identify as being ready to do so.…”

Health, faith and therapeutic landscapes: Places of worship as Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) public health settings in the United Kingdom

“…Many fewer studies have been conducted in the UK, and they tend to focus on South Asians -the UK's largest minority group (November 2014: 38;Bush et al 2003;Ainsworth et al 2013 Rao et al 2012). We argue that, in the light of the 'turn to faith' by the state -which is increasingly engaging with religious leaders (RLs) and PWs on a range of social welfare issues, from foodbanks (Lambie 2011;Williams et al 2016) and homelessness (Johnsen 2014), to anti-human trafficking support (Davies 2009) and addiction services (Williams 2016) -a focus on places of worship as public health settings is overdue. In the literature on faith and health, there has been relatively little attention paid to the role that places of worship such as churches, mosques and temples can play as locations where immigrants and minority communities are able to 'maintain and reinforce their religious practice', and the implications of this for health (Agyekum and Newbold 2017: 675).…”

Rebalancing the rhetoric: A normative analysis of enforcement in street homelessness policy

“…One specific strand of mutualism that appears to have strong popular appeal in the UK (O'Neil et al, 2017) relates to theological principles that stress human interdependence and moral obligations to care for the 'needy other' (Johnsen, 2014). Drawing explicitly on this perspective, a number of faith-based service providers opposed enforcement on the grounds that it compromised society's ability to care for homeless people in a manner consistent with their innate dignity and worth: I think our stance philosophically and theologically, would be that .…”