The demand for housing assistance across the United States far exceeds the supply, leaving housing providers the task of prioritizing clients for receipt of this limited resource. To be eligible for federal funding, local homelessness systems are required to implement assessment tools as part of their prioritization processes. The Vulnerability Index Service Prioritization Decision Assistance Tool (VI-SPDAT) is the most commonly used assessment tool nationwide. Recent studies have criticized the VI-SPDAT as exhibiting racial bias, which may lead to unwarranted racial disparities in housing provision. In response to these criticisms, some jurisdictions have developed alternative tools, such as the Allegheny Housing Assessment (AHA), which uses algorithms to assess clients' risk levels. Drawing on data from its deployment, we conduct descriptive and quantitative analyses to evaluate whether replacing the VI-SPDAT with the AHA affects racial disparities in housing allocation. We find that the VI-SPDAT tended to assign higher risk scores to white clients and lower risk scores to Black clients, and that white clients were served at a higher rates pre-AHA deployment. While post-deployment service decisions became better aligned with the AHA score, and the distribution of AHA scores is similar across racial groups, we do not find evidence of a corresponding decrease in disparities in service rates. We attribute the persistent disparity to the use of Alt-AHA, a survey-based tool that is used in cases of low data quality, as well as group differences in eligibility-related factors, such as chronic homelessness and veteran status. We discuss the implications for housing service systems seeking to reduce racial disparities in their service delivery.

翻译：美国各地对住房援助的需求远超供给，这使得住房提供者面临如何为有限资源分配优先级的任务。为获得联邦资金资格，地方无家可归者救助系统需在其优先级评定流程中实施评估工具。脆弱指数服务优先级决策辅助工具（VI-SPDAT）是全国范围内最常用的评估工具。近期研究批评VI-SPDAT存在种族偏见，可能导致住房分配中出现不合理的种族差异。针对这些批评，部分司法管辖区开发了替代工具，例如采用算法评估客户风险水平的阿勒格尼住房评估工具（AHA）。基于该工具实施期间的数据，我们通过描述性与定量分析来评估用AHA替代VI-SPDAT是否影响住房分配的种族差异。研究发现：VI-SPDAT倾向于给予白人客户更高风险评分、黑人客户更低风险评分，且在AHA实施前白人客户获得服务的比例更高。尽管实施后的服务决策与AHA评分更趋一致，且不同种族群体的AHA评分分布相似，但我们未发现服务率差异相应减少的证据。我们将这种持续存在的差异归因于Alt-AHA（一种在数据质量较低时使用的基于调查的工具）的使用，以及与资格相关的群体差异因素（如长期无家可归状态和退伍军人身份）。本文讨论了住房服务系统在寻求减少服务提供中种族差异方面的实践意义。