Preserving Context in Social Service Data

Many analytic approaches require data anonymization or abstraction before analysis, which can remove contextual details that are essential to understanding housing instability and service needs. While these practices are necessary for privacy protection, they can limit the ability of researchers and practitioners to examine patterns over time or across intersecting factors.

This project begins from the premise that ethical safeguards and contextual integrity must be addressed together. Preserving critical human context while maintaining privacy is essential for responsible analysis in homelessness services.