Service Providers’ Influence in Collaborative Governance Networks: Effectiveness in Reducing Chronic Homelessness

Abstract In fragmented policy areas, collaboration between government entities and nonprofit providers is thought to promote knowledge sharing and reinforce mutual accountability, hopefully improving performance. The popularity of this trend is matched only by the difficulties in actually meeting these multiplex goals. This is partly because there are both process (e.g., engagement and mutual learning) and outcome (e.g., effectiveness) goals that can work at cross-purposes. In this article, we use longitudinal data from a specific collaborative governance model—Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Homeless Continuums of Care (CoCs)—to investigate the relationship between meaningful inclusion of nonprofit service providers in the network and a valued outcome: reducing regional chronic homelessness. Specifically, we use structural equation modeling to assess the degree to which provider influence and local government support play mediating roles between network governance structure, growth in federal resource munificence, and reductions in chronic homeless. Combining HUD administrative data and data from a national survey of the population of CoCs (N = 313, 75% response rate), we find that while both (1) provider influence in decision-making and (2) federal funding growth are directly associated with reductions in chronic homelessness, provider influence also serves as an important mediator in the relationships between network governance structure, federal funding growth, and reductions in chronic homelessness. Qualitative case examples are then used to demonstrate how these trends are experienced in practice. Overall, we argue that collaborative governance can best improve client outcomes when it is truly collaborative and providers are given meaningful ways to engage with and influence the process.