The Pittsburgh Housing Authority will begin using artificial intelligence to help artificial intelligence handle thousands of applications from people in need of affordable housing.
Thursday, the city of Pittsburgh Housing Bureau [HACP] The board has approved a $160,392 payment to Boodskapper Inc., a private artificial intelligence company known as Bob.ai. The company offers several services to automate housing authorities' work, including reviewing and verifying certification packages from current voucher holders. The initiative will begin as a one-year pilot program.
“Taking the concerns from board members and public speakers about the role AI plays, Caster Vinion, emphasized that “AI will not be in charge, and will not make decisions.”
“This is especially used for reconstruction,” he added.
Recertification refers to renewals that affect existing voucher holders, such as household income level and number of families. Households with vouchers pay 30% of their income to rent and utility, and are covered by HACP.
“AI scans recertified packets with revenue and shows up in the backend when the packet is completed, so we're not processing them, so we're just doing preliminary work,” said Lashauna Hammond, director of the authorities' housing selection voucher program.
The pilot's approval comes after Vinion signaled at a meeting with city council last year, and authorities experimented with other efforts to improve the efficiency of their AI and voucher programs. In 2020, Publicsource reported that housing authorities were planning to “strengthen their voucher program,” but those efforts were hampered by a staffing shortage, according to the agency's leadership.
Since then, steps have been taken to train new staff, according to Binion, who has pledged improvements in 2022 along with the former board chair.
Board member Charlie's Smith worried that the program might take on human tendencies to discriminate against certain types of people.
The board's public commentators reflect Smith's concerns.
“We've seen a lot of people living in the country,” said Megan Hammond, Housing Justice Advocate and Executive Director of Fair Housing Partnerships in Greater Pittsburgh.
“AI relies on the people who create AI. As a result, AI is susceptible to the continued and scaling of fair housing concerns,” Hammond said, noting that the National Fair Housing Alliance has created a responsible AI symposium that includes a framework for auditing algorithm bias in these programs.
Hammond “sought increased transparency regarding the proposed role of bob.ai, including checks and balances for applicants and voucher recipients to challenge inaccurate information.”
She asked for monthly public reports from the authorities regarding the status of the monthly housing selection voucher wait list and information about where the authorities allocate funds.
Concerns about the use of AI in public housing have also reached federal levels.
The U.S. Housing and Urban Development Agency has released guidelines for housing authorities nationwide on best practices and use of this new technology to implement the Fair Housing Act and to prevent discrimination in housing.
Lashawna Hammond claimed that the program was needed to help with the backlog of reauthentication applications that could overwhelm staff.
She noted that the system is used to improve processing time and reduce administrative and user errors. She said the system can detect missing information in the application and how it triggers an automatic response to the client, informing them that the application is incomplete.
She said there are 13 housing professionals in her department, each averagering a caseload of 500 people. She said she has hired five new housing specialists since June 30th, but it will take time to train new hires and speed up.
Eric Jankiewicz is an economic development reporter for Publicsource and can be contacted at ericj@publicsource.org or on Twitter. @ericjankiewicz.
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