Understanding Data Usage when Making High-Stakes Frontline Decisions in Homelessness Services

Frontline staff of emergency shelters face challenges such as vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue, and burnout. The technology they use is often not designed to fit their unique needs and can feel burdensome, on top of already cognitively and emotionally taxing work. While existing literature focuses on data-driven technologies that automate or streamline frontline decision-making about vulnerable clients, we discuss scenarios when staff may resist such automation, and suggest how data-driven technologies can better align with their human-centred decision-making processes. This paper presents findings from a longitudinal qualitative fieldwork study conducted at a large emergency shelter in Canada, from 2022-2024. The goal of this fieldwork was to co-design, develop, and deploy an interactive data-navigation interface that supports frontline staff during collaborative, high-stakes decision-making about clients experiencing homelessness. Such decisions are high-stakes as they can have potential impacts on clients' survival. In reflecting on this fieldwork, we contribute insight into the role of administrative shelter data in these decisions, and unpack staff members' apparent reluctance to outsource decisions about vulnerable clients to data systems. We discuss the notion of a "data-outsourcing continuum" in terms of how future designers may create technologies that support compassionate data-driven decision-making in nonprofit, human-centred domains.