We recently celebrated and then quickly flew past our first 50 IDs here in Los Angeles! The staff at our favorite DMV now know our names and have memorized at least one of our phone numbers, and we are now very familiar with many of the tiny home and safe sleep locations around town, including this beautiful tiny home village tucked into a hidden alcove in a quiet little neighborhood. One gentleman living in this village got his ID this morning. It cost us $115. $67 for his birth certificate. $15 for the notarization to authenticate his identity to receive his birth certificate. $33 for the ID. That is much more than he could afford but a lot less than the city is spending to house this man in subsidized village housing that he wouldn't need if he had the job and home that he really wants—and needed an ID to get. So why doesn't the city just pay for his ID? I guess that's a question for our c4.
I may have had my head down running between DMVs and tent cities in LA but outside of the madness of my own world, our staff, volunteers, and partners around the country are all working hard. Now that most of the world is reopened or reopening soon (including Social Security offices!!) we're getting back into the speed of our pre-COVID days—for the most part. Some of our shelters are still facing outbreaks and lockdowns and we will be maintaining some of our COVID precautions until the end of time but even so, the hot vax summer of our dreams has come a year too late but it does feel like it's finally here. And just in time. We get IDs for every day of the year but you can't help but feel a bit more pressure when an election is on the way. Primaries and local elections are happening already and November will be here before we know it. With all of the new voting restrictions that are here and to come, we know that having IDs in the hands of our voters is absolutely critical.
Still, at the end of the day, IDs are important for clients like Wallis. We met Wallis on our first day at one of the tiny villages. He really wanted a job and needed an ID, a birth certificate, and a Social Security card. We got him his ID and birth certificate pretty quickly and he thought he had to wait to get a job until his card came in. I explained that he could use a birth certificate for his I-9 and, relieved, he applied for a job at a hardware store and was hired! Unfortunately, HR at his store didn't want to accept his birth certificate. Luckily, all it took was a little phone call from our General Counsel for them to figure out that yes, indeed, you can use a birth certificate and today when I went to the tiny village, Wallis wasn't there because he was at work.
That's really what we're doing here. That's what this is all about.
Thank you as always for your support. Let's keep going.
Kat
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