Need for Social Services May Fall to Lowest Level in a Decade, Study Suggests

The need for social services provided by the Salvation Army is approaching its lowest level in a decade after peaking in 2012, according to a new study. Among the states with the highest need for basic services are Arkansas, Nevada, and Wyoming.

The findings are based on a project called the Human Needs Index, which is produced by the Salvation Army and Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis. The index measures needs such as food, clothing, and furniture, as well as people’s ability to afford housing, medicine, and energy bills. Although the numbers apply just to the Salvation Army, the study suggests that it probably reflects what’s happening at other charities, too.

The index tends to be higher in states that provide lower levels of government services to the poor.

Una Osili, associate dean for research and international programs for the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at the university, said the study helps explain a paradox between citizens and governments.

“In certain kinds of communities, the quality of help they’re getting from government programs might not be as good as what they’re getting from the alternatives,” she said. “We saw this as a particular issue and challenge for our country because as households trust government less, that puts more burden on these nonprofits.”

Osili also said the decline in the national index score suggests that some states may not be as needy as they once were.

Need Is High in Nevada

The Human Needs Index begins at 0, indicating the lowest level of need, but it has no set upper limit. The scale, like a weighted grade point average, has in some cases risen beyond 4.

So far in 2018, the national score stands at 0.99. It has been as high as 1.33, in 2012, and as low as 0.78, in 2004.

Delaware, Oregon, and Virginia were states recording some of the lowest levels of need for the Salvation Army, the study found.

Nevada has had the greatest need 11 out of 15 times since the first year recorded in 2004. The other four years it’s been the second-neediest. Its average score over those years has been 3.34.

Lt. Col. Ward Matthews, the Salvation Army’s national community-relations and development secretary, said the organization may use the data in the future to develop innovative programs to help states like Nevada.

“At one point we were 28 million [people nationwide] helped in 2013, and now it’s down to 23.1,” he said, citing programs like Pathway of Hope that are designed to establish long-term solutions against intergenerational poverty, decreasing the total.

The organization is also establishing new efforts, like its new nonprofit grocery store in Baltimore.