Poorer neighborhoods in Los Angeles County have been left with less access to nonprofit organizations that provide shelter, food, job training, alcohol and substance abuse counseling and other basic services, according to a new study released by the Center for Civil Society at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs.

In particular, African American neighborhoods have been hardest hit.

Spread Thin: Human Services Organizations in Poor Neighborhoods reveals that poorer neighborhoods, where needs are the greatest, contain fewer human services nonprofits than middle and upper income neighborhoods across Los Angeles County. This is especially true in South Los Angeles and high poverty areas in the San Fernando Valley.

“The spatial distribution of nonprofit human service in Los Angeles County is quite unequal,” said UCLA Luskin Social Welfare professor Zeke Hasenfeld, the lead author of the survey. “As is often the case with access to jobs and healthy foods, sections of Los Angeles County are like urban deserts when it comes to the lack of human service nonprofit organizations that are vital to improving the quality of life in poor neighborhoods.”

Spread Thin follows up on a 2011 survey of Los Angeles human services nonprofits conducted by the UCLA Center for Civil Society that documented the rising demands and falling revenues of human services nonprofits over the past decade.

“Following the results of the 2011 survey, we wanted to go deeper, to try to gauge the ‘where, what, why’ of human services nonprofits in high poverty neighborhoods,” said Bill Parent, acting director of the Center for Civil Society.

Among the report’s findings:

• Almost 24 percent of the census tracts in Los Angeles County have no established nonprofit human services in them. These are mostly concentrated in South Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley.
• Human services nonprofits in poor neighborhoods are relatively small. The median revenue is $430,160—less than half the median revenue of $962,426 for all nonprofit human services in Los Angeles County.
• Human services nonprofits in poorer neighborhoods are primarily dependent on private donations, including foundation support, and receive significantly less government funding than human services organizations throughout Los Angeles County.
• Nonprofit respondents who experienced reductions in government funding cited cutbacks in federal community development block grants and Housing and Urban Development assistance encompassing services to the homeless and mortgage and foreclosure assistance, as well as state CalWORKs and funding from the California Department of Mental Health.
• Organizations serving poor and predominantly African American neighborhoods face distinct challenges: they are smaller and less likely to obtain government funding, and they compete with similar nonprofits in terms of private giving. At the same time, however, these organizations’ staffing patterns, boards of directors, and management practices are on a par with organizations of similar size across Los Angeles County.

“What is most disturbing is that the state and federal governments are continuing to make cuts in human services to balance their budgets. The safety net as we know it is smaller and weaker, particularly for those most in need,” Parent said.

Highlights from Spread Thin: Human Services Organizations in High Poverty Neighborhoods were presented during a Tuesday event at the Center for Civil Society’s annual conference on the state of the Los Angeles nonprofit sector, to be held at the Skirball Center. The event is presented in partnership with Southern California Grantmakers, a regional association of philanthropic leaders working to support and advance effective grantmaking.. The report will be available on the Center for Civil Society web site, http://civilsociety.ucla.edu.

The conference and research are made possible by support from the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, with additional support from the Weingart Foundation and the James Irvine Foundation.

About the Center for Civil Society

The Center for Civil Society at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs was established in 2002 as a research center focused on civil society, nonprofit organizations, philanthropy and social enterprise. Situated across the School’s three academic departments of Public Policy, Social Welfare and Urban Planning, the Center has developed graduate curricula; served as a convening center for scholars, practitioners, and students; and become a trusted source of data and analysis for the regional nonprofit community. The primary focus of the Center’s work is to be a catalyst in developing innovative research and public engagement initiatives on the challenges and opportunities facing urban civil society—in Los Angeles and beyond—in the next decade. civilsociety.ucla.edu 

About Southern California Grantmakers

Southern California Grantmakers (SCG) is a membership association that serves as a common voice for a diverse and vibrant community of philanthropists, bound by a shared desire to make a difference by strengthening underserved communities, enhancing people’s lives and building a better future. Members represent Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties. Founded in 1973, SCG’s members are comprised of private sector grantmakers, including independent foundations, family foundations, corporate foundations and giving programs, community foundations, public foundations, private operating foundations, and individual philanthropists. www.socalgrantmakers.org

About the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs

Founded in 1994 and dedicated in 2011, the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs is a leading institution for research and scholarship in the areas of public policy, social welfare and urban planning. Based in the global metropolis of Los Angeles, UCLA Luskin develops creative solutions and innovative leaders that confront challenges in public safety, sustainability and the environment, health policy, child welfare, transportation, community development, social justice, and other areas vital to the continued health and well-being of our global society. Learn more at publicaffairs.ucla.edu.