Making BIPOC Lives Matter: A Qualitative Analysis of Managerial Resistance to Racial Exclusions in US Homeless Systems

The way racial disparities get re/produced or challenged by homeless systems is an underexplored subject in housing studies. This paper advances scholarship on that topic by examining how homeless system managers in the USA are responding to demands for colour-conscious vulnerability screenings. The VI-SPDAT is a popular tool for measuring the vulnerability of homeless service recipients and making resource allocation decisions. Recent studies suggest the VI-SPDAT is racially biased and thwarts Black Indigenous People of Colour (BIPOC) from getting rehoused. This paper presents interview-based research conducted with 35 participants from 28 homeless systems that answers questions about how managerial staff perceive the VI-SPDAT and steps they are (not) taking to address racial disparities associated with the tool. Our findings delineate various ways system managers indirectly support service recipients by resisting institutional practices that marginalize BIPOCs. This extends homeless scholarship by showing how race relations shape supportive interventions in the USA and the way system managers try to allay racial disparities.