Fair Beds, Not a Race: How Datashift Built a Smarter Way to Allocate Night Shelter in Rivierenland

or years, securing a night shelter bed in Mechelen came down to speed: whoever logged in first each morning got a place for their client. Datashift developed a digital application for CAW Rivierenland that allocates the available beds automatically, transparently and fairly across twelve local social welfare services (OCMW's). The project was covered by HLN.

Recap:

• The challenge: Twelve OCMW's and CAW Rivierenland jointly run a night shelter with 15 beds. With demand exceeding supply, social workers competed every morning for a place, which created frustration among municipalities that contributed funding.
• What we built: A custom application that applies clear allocation rules. Municipalities that have received the fewest places so far get priority.
• The impact: Fair, consistent and transparent allocation. CAW gains insight into occupancy and length of stay, and social workers can follow the status of every request themselves.
• The bigger picture: The tool distributes scarce capacity better, but it does not remove the shortage itself. That requires broader measures, which the partners are working on, such as sustainable housing for long-stay residents.

Why it matters: This is the kind of impact we want to deliver with data and AI: turning a daily scramble into a fair, transparent process that people can trust.

Read the full article on HLN (paywalled): https://www.hln.be/mechelen/wie-eerst-inlogde-kreeg-onderdak-anderen-niet-caw-en-datashift-maken-komaf-met-ochtendstrijd-om-nachtopvang~a0d790b9/