For the time being the Covenant Shelter and the New London Homeless Hospitality Center — which both provide shelter for and services to the homeless — will continue to operate independently. The Covenant Shelter board, after checking with a consultant, voted not to move forward with a merger of the two nonprofit agencies.

While respecting that decision, and acknowledging the vital role both these agencies play, we have to express some surprise.

The two groups have closely related missions. Covenant Shelter provides five family rooms, as well as 14 beds for single adult men and three beds for single women. The Homeless Hospitality Center focuses exclusively on providing shelter to single adults, providing up to 40 beds at its State Pier Road location.

Both agencies collaborate with state and local social service agencies in providing support to get clients into housing and prevent individuals from falling into the crises that result in homelessness to begin with.

Working under a single board and administration would seem to provide the opportunity to improve that collaboration and potentially cut overhead costs, but Covenant Shelter officials said after taking a closer look they did not see it that way.

Both groups did pledge that even without a formal merger they will continue to look for ways to work together more effectively in carrying out their missions. Unfortunately, demand remains high and there are no signs of that abating.

Coincidentally, at the same time news broke Wednesday about the decision not to merge the two agencies, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy was fielding questions at the Holiday Inn in the city. He was the guest speaker at the Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut breakfast.

Responding to concerns about cuts in state funding for social service programs, Malloy said agencies providing these services will by necessity have to look at consolidations. Slow economic growth and lagging tax revenues mean government spending will remind tight, Malloy told his audience.

“There’s going to have to be a degree of consolidation within the social services arena to make the provision of these services as affordable as possible,” he said.

The availability of funding, or lack of it, could dictate future changes. For now, we continue to applaud the work of those helping those without shelter and urge the public to support those efforts.