The Iron Triangle of Affordable Homeownership: Habitat for Humanity Affiliate Strategies for Balancing Efficiency, Effectiveness, and Equity

• Author: Jessica Berrett,Teshanee Williams,Honey Minkowitz,Alexandra Lahoud
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/02750740221133754
• Published date: 01 November 2022
• Date: 01 November 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

The Iron Triangle of Affordable

Homeownership: Habitat for Humanity

Affiliate Strategies for Balancing

Efficiency, Effectiveness, and Equity

Jessica Berrett

1

, Teshanee Williams

2

, Honey Minkowitz

3

and Alexandra Lahoud

1

Abstract

While the public values of efficiency, effectiveness, and equity have been extensively studied in the public sector, ver y little

research exists in the nonprofit context. In particular, we lack an understanding of what public values nonprofit leaders

prioritize, why they prioritize certain public values over others, and how they balance or make tradeoffs between public val-

ues. Thirty-six Habitat for Humanity affiliate leaders from the United States were interviewed for this research. Interestingly,

while the nonprofit leaders in the sample represent the same mission, they all prioritize different public values—though a

plurality focuses on equity. We also found that the three primary challenges they perceive in achieving these public values

relate to access, quality, and capacity. While Habitat leaders already apply strategies to deal with these challenges, we offer

some additional suggestions for Habitat affiliates and similar affordable homeownership nonprofits to consider.

Keywords

public values, efficiency, effectiveness, equity, Habitat for Humanity, affordable homeownership

Introduction

An emerging view of public administration, building on the

perspectives offered by New Public Management, posits that

public serviceorganizations must balance traditional measures

of success (Moynihanet al., 2011; Talbot, 2010) with mission-

based values (Radin, 2006), or make tradeoffs to resolve con-

flicts (Oldenhof et al.,2014). Much of the literature on public-

value prioritization has focused on differences between sectors

(de Graaf & van der Wal, 2008; Miller-Stevens et al., 2015;

Van der Wal et al., 2008) or on why individuals in similar

sectors prioritize public values differently (DeForest Molina

& McKeown, 2012; Fernández-Gutiérrez & Van de Walle,

2019; Van der Wal & Hubert, 2008; Stazyk & Davis, 2020;

Stazyk et al., 2017). Yet very few have examined the prioriti-

zation of public values in the nonprofit sector (Mill er-Stevens

et al., 2015).

Understanding how public values are assessed when con-

sidering public management performance for decision-

making is essential. Public service organization managers

are often faced with balancing or compromising objectives

that may not be compatible with improving the organization

(Andrews & Entwistle, 2010; Andrews & Van de Walle,

2013; de Graaf & van der Wal, 2008). However, the prioriti-

zation of these values for guiding decision-making takes on

added importance given the significant role that nonprofit

organizations play in meeting the needs of society. Thus,

this research study asks the following questions: What

public values are nonprofit leaders prioritizing? Why do non-

profit managers prioritize certain values over others? And

how do nonprofit leaders balance or make tradeoffs among

public values?

This research is important for several reasons. First, non-

profits play a unique and significant role in meeting public

needs. Therefore, understanding the nonprofitsector’s

approach to prioritizing certain public values will inform the

emerging literature on public-value governance. Second, this

study takes an empirical approach to understanding nonprofit

prioritization and explores the challenges nonprofit leaders

1

College of Public Service, University of Colorado Colorado Springs,

Colorado Springs, CO, USA

2

School of Government, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,

Chapel Hill, NC, USA

3

School of Public and International Affairs, North Carolina State University,

Raleigh, NC, USA

Corresponding Author:

Jessica Berrett, College of Public Service, University of Colorado Colorado

Springs, Colorado Springs, CO, USA.

Email: jberrett@uccs.edu

Article

American Review of Public Administration

2022, Vol. 52(8) 573–585

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/02750740221133754

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