NETWORKS AND NONPROFITS - OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES IN AN ERA OF FEDERAL DEVOLUTION - COMMENT

The Keyes et al. article is an important contribution to the discussio n of the future role of nonprofit organizations (NPOs) in the delivery of low-income housing. This article does a good job of examining netw orks and linking the NPO discussion to the concept of social capital. Also, the case studies provide informative empirical evidence. However , Keyes et al. has several weaknesses in the argument for NPOs. The la ck of a careful explanation of the case for market failure is the prim ary weakness. The argument can also be strengthened by expounding on t he problems of investing in low-quality housing. Other potential weakn esses include the difficulty of identifying stakeholders and the likel y leakage of subsidies to NPO employees. My comments echo the authors' call for additional research about NPOs. More data and investigation are needed to determine the proper role of NPOs, whether they should s erve a political purpose, how the services of NPO networks should be p riced, and how efficient NPOs are relative to other private organizati ons that provide similar services.