Searching on the Internet one can find plenty of sentences where "allocate [something] among [someone]" appears, for instance (Google Books):
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The Congress amended the law to require OPOs "to allocate donated organs equitably among transplant patients according to established medical criteria."
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It becomes effective if and when norms and categories for the distribution of insufficient capacities have to be established in order to allocate scarce resources among several needy persons through competition.
But, if one tries finding a fragment like "allocate [someone] among [something]" the search results begin more scattered, almost like it is not proper or idiomatic English to use "allocate" that way. An example of this kind is (Google Books):
- If the solution to a problem can only be expressed in whole numbers, as would be the case if the problem involved how to allocate people among various tasks or departments, then linear programming models can't be used.
So, is it proper English to say "allocate [someone] among [something]"?
Best Answer
It makes little sense to allocate a singular person ("We allocated Ted among the houses on the block"), as you'd be separating Ted into parts and putting each part in a house. However it does make sense to say "We allocated all the people among the houses on the block". As Andrew said, the usage of the word "among" is awkward, but it's still correct.