Under the bipartisan legislation, a nonprofit would verify that a person was experiencing homelessness, and the state would waive the fee to obtain photo identification
Photo identification is required for everything from opening a bank account to cashing checks to applying for food stamps to getting a library card. Without a photo ID, people are barred from accessing critical services. For people experiencing homelessness, losing an ID can mean losing their ability to get into a job or housing.
Take Colleen Bannon Huntley’s situation. She was a homeless resident of Grants Pass receiving $1,100 a month in Social Security checks. The only problem? She couldn’t access the checks, which were deposited into her bank account, because she didn’t have an ID.
Huntley eventually started having her checks sent to River Valley Community Church’s Lifeline Ministry instead. The church also helps cover the cost of replacement ID cards, among other essential services. Harriet Harris, a volunteer at the ministry, told Street Roots that she and Huntley had an appointment scheduled for Dec. 7 of last year to get her a new ID from the Department of Motor Vehicles so Huntley could finally access her money.
But Huntley never got her ID. She died on Nov. 23 at the age of 73 from what was believed to be congestive heart failure.
Harris argues that her death might have been prevented if, years earlier, she was able to get an ID, cash her Social Security checks and use that money for housing or health care.
Though sometimes their services come too late, organizations across Oregon spend thousands of dollars a year on covering the fees for ID cards. Harris said Lifeline Ministry spent about $4,000 on IDs in 2019 alone. Oregon charges $44.50 for an original state-issued ID, $40.50 for a renewal and $39.50 for a replacement.
In a testimony to state lawmakers, Harris said, “That’s money that we would like to put towards keeping people in housing.”
Harris might soon get her wish. A bipartisan Oregon bill that would waive ID card fees for houseless people is headed to the House floor. If passed, House Bill 3026 will direct the Oregon Department of Transportation to waive fees for issuing, renewing or replacing ID cards for people experiencing homelessness starting on Jan. 1, 2022. And Oregon would join states such as California and Nevada in waiving these fees.
The bill is supported by ODOT, the Oregon Law Center and several nonprofit organizations. First-term state Reps. Zach Hudson (D-Troutdale) and Lily Morgan (R-Grants Pass) are the bill’s chief sponsors. And since the legislation was introduced, 11 more state representatives signed on.
Rep. Anna Williams (D-Hood River) decided to sponsor the bill after hearing public testimony, saying she had experienced not having an ID card and a consistent home address.
“You just sort of get stuck in this black hole where there’s very little opportunity to engage,” Williams said.
Members of nonprofits from across the state testified in support of the bill. Katherine Goodnight, the community service center manager at Catholic Community Services, said her organization holds a specific “ID day” twice a month, where their lobby is filled with people who need help obtaining a new ID. She recalled helping one Lane County resident, who was living on the streets, get an ID and be able to cash a $10,000 Social Security check and later find housing.
“It can be a dehumanizing experience to not have one of the most powerful tools that asserts who you are, that you exist and are doing the best you can to establish a foundation to build a future upon.”
It’s common for houseless people to be denied essential services until they have an ID. A study by the National Homelessness Law Center found that during one month in 2004, 54% of surveyed people experiencing homelessness were denied access to shelters or housing services due to not having a valid ID. Additionally, 53% were denied food stamps and 45% were denied access to Medicaid or other medical services for the same reason.
In Southern Oregon, Kelly Wessels, chief operating officer of the United Community Action Network, also testified to the power of the ID card.
“It can be a dehumanizing experience to not have one of the most powerful tools that asserts who you are, that you exist and are doing the best you can to establish a foundation to build a future upon,” Wessels said in her testimony.
People who are houseless may lose their IDs at high rates while navigating a lack of shelter and storage space. On top of this, they are often victims of robberies. A 2014 study by the National Health Care for the Homeless Council found that 73% of surveyed homeless people had been attacked in the previous year, and 49% of them were robbed during the attack, often losing personal identification documents.
“It’s not always your fault when you lose your ID being homeless,” said Tiffany, a Grants Pass resident experiencing homelessness who asked that Street Roots omit her last name. She recently got a new ID and said she paid nearly $50 out of her $300 per month income, rather than having a nonprofit pay the fee.
If the bill is passed, individuals who are homeless and nonprofit organizations would no longer have to pay any fees, though nonprofits would still be required to act as the go-between. They would be responsible for vetting people applying for fee waivers and ensuring they are experiencing homelessness. All individuals applying for a waiver would need to have a form signed by an organization saying they qualify.
The bill would formalize the relationship between nonprofits and the transportation department, said Lindsay Baker, assistant director of government and external relations at ODOT.
In a testimony for the bill, Baker explained, “ODOT-DMV envisions establishing a process whereby qualifying nonprofits may sign up as participating members, allowing them to certify that an individual is currently experiencing homelessness and thereby eligible for an ID card fee waiver, similar to a current process in place at the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) for birth certificates.”
In 2017, the state passed House Bill 2402, which required OHA to provide birth certificate copies to people experiencing homelessness for free. The agency has since partnered with organizations in 16 out of Oregon’s 36 counties that help people apply for birth certificates, which are required to get ID cards.
Hudson, a co-sponsor of the ID bill, said the proposed legislation is a way to “close the gap” in getting people experiencing homelessness the critical resources they need to access other services, like housing and food assistance.
Central City Concern, a Portland-based nonprofit that spends thousands of dollars a year helping people obtain identification, said this bill would cut out the “administrative shuffle.”
“Currently we are able to pay for most of the cost of obtaining identification on behalf of clients using funds that largely come from other government funded sources,” Mercedes Elizalde, the organization’s public policy director, wrote in her testimony. “In other words, the state is taking a long-round-about way to paying itself for covering the cost of state issued identification.”
Central City Concern serves about 13,000 people annually, and Elizalde estimates that, depending on the program, anywhere from 10% to 50% of clients need help with obtaining an ID. She said one problem the bill will eliminate is the need for clients to have an ID to enroll in programs with her organization.
“Most funders have tried to be flexible realizing the barrier this presents to the very people we all want served. But we are basically doing things backwards,” she said, and this can lead to a lack of reimbursement to her nonprofit.
Though the bill is supported by numerous Oregon nonprofits that provide ID services, the fee waiver certification process would be a “paperwork burden on already over-stretched service providers,” Eric Tars, the legal director at the National Homelessness Law Center, told Street Roots.
“It’s not like a homeless person in need can just walk into the DMV and get an ID for free, so there still are some barriers,” Tars said via email. “The equitable approach would be to simply eliminate the ID fee for everyone, since it serves as a regressive tax on all those least able to afford it, disproportionately impacting BIPOC communities, and make up the budget difference with more progressive personal or corporate income taxes or taxes on luxury goods or services elsewhere.”
Regardless, Tars said the bill is still a “step in the right direction.”
The legislation would have a large impact for nonprofits by freeing up limited funds, yet it would have a small financial impact on the state. If the bill passes, ODOT estimates a revenue loss of between $25,000 and $50,000 every two years — about 0.5% of public transit revenues. ID card fees typically go toward public transit services for seniors and people with disabilities, and ODOT predicts it will not need any other funding sources to make up what they have deemed as an “insignificant” loss.
What the bill won’t do is move homeless people to the front of the line in getting new IDs. In addition to fees, time is the largest barrier people face in obtaining these cards. Wessels, from the United Community Action Network, has long faced this challenge when aiding people who are homeless.
“While we make every effort to reduce the timeline, there have been instances where it took up to nine months to secure identification cards for individuals,” she said in her public testimony. “Delays impede access to life altering benefits, and extends periods of homelessness in our community.”
Baker, from ODOT, said that while the agency can’t move homeless people to the front of the line, it will continue to prioritize folks as much as it can, recognizing the greater difficulty people experiencing homelessness face in obtaining a form of identification.
Even though the proposed legislation won’t necessarily speed up the process, Hudson described the bill to waive fees as “simple, yet impactful.”
He added, “Maybe it’s a small thing, but it is something that we could do as a state to remove barriers from people who are experiencing hardship.”
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