🤖 AI Summary
This study examines how the federally mandated Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) data infrastructure, implemented within a context of compulsory interorganizational collaboration in U.S. homeless services, simultaneously enhances cross-agency coordination and reinforces power asymmetries. Drawing on in-depth interviews with six domain experts, the analysis reveals that while standardization improves collaborative efficiency and knowledge sharing, disparities in resources, analytical capacity, and institutional authority render less powerful participants prone to passive compliance, thereby diminishing their influence in decision-making. The findings demonstrate that mandatory data-sharing regimes can entrench structural inequities, offering critical theoretical insights and practical guidance for designing more equitable public data infrastructures.
📝 Abstract
When governments mandate collaboration, shared data systems can serve both as tools for coordination and instruments of control. This study examines U.S. homelessness service networks, where Continuums of Care (CoCs) coordinate service providers through the federally mandated Homeless Management Information System (HMIS). With client consent, providers enter data into HMIS and access cross-provider service histories to support coordinated care. At the same time, HMIS embeds standards and governance rules that shape who can collect, access, interpret, and act on data, and thus who holds decision authority. Using qualitative interviews with six experts, we show that standardization can facilitate collaboration and shared learning. However, unequal resources, analytic capacity, and authority limit equitable participation and often shift some participants toward compliance-focused roles. We contribute to public-interest design research on civic data infrastructures by illustrating how mandated data sharing can simultaneously enable coordination and accountability while reproducing power asymmetries in data interpretation and decision-making.