There was a reason that President Bush created and President Obama continued faith based charities and it wasn't because he wanted to convert everyone
. In a lot of poor neighborhoods, especially African-American ones, it is the church that has been reaching out for generations and knows the needs and concerns of the neighborhood. Also, for that reason, it is the church that is one of the main institutions that is respected by the community. Why wouldn't you want to use that expertise and the 'boots on the ground' that already exist?
It's all fine and good to say work with non-faith based charities, but you start looking around and realize that faith based charities are the ones who are more active in the inner cities.
It is somewhat the same issue with the ebola crisis. Overwhelming it is Christian missions who are over in west Africa to help folks with ebola. There simply aren't nearly as much non-faith based charity workers. It may be a decent sentiment (I don't think it is, FWIW), but it doesn't seem to correspond to what is actually happening.