A few weeks ago, the Movement Advancement Project gave me the best Christmas present ever: a new ID study.
For six years I have gone to bed every night dreaming about the day that we would receive a brand new, national study on IDs in America and here it is. Even better, it confirms everything we’ve seen on the ground every day for six years.
The first big thing is that we have known that the number of American adults without ID is far higher than the number we’ve had from the 2012 study that has, until now, been the only real survey of ID-less Americans in the country. But now, thanks to MAP, we have a new number: 26 million. That’s right. Five million MORE American adults do not have government-issued photo ID than in 2012. This is a stunning number. 11% of adults in America do not have the ID they need to obtain jobs, housing, social services, medical care, open a bank account, and so much more and the problem is only getting worse.
Not only that, but when we break down the average cost of an ID we see why it’s so incredibly difficult to get one. Our average cost to obtain an ID and the documents needed to get one is $40. This varies widely depending on client needs and the state we’re in, our IDs can range anywhere from $5 to well over $100. But $40 is the average.
$40 is 5 1/4 hours of work at the federal minimum wage.
Birth certificates average $51, which is 7 hours of work at the federal minimum wage. This is especially shocking considering that 6-7% of adults or 15-18 million people do not have access to documents proving birth or citizenship. This is certainly true for our clients, 57% of whom do not have a birth certificate when they come to us.
MAP also provided us with some shocking new statistics about life without an ID:
60% of unhoused people experience harassment or arrest if they cannot produce an ID on demand.
54% of people without photo ID were denied shelter or housing services
45% of unhoused people were denied medical services due to lack of ID
53% of SNAP applicants were denied for lack of ID
51% of SSI applicants were denied for lack of ID
31% of TANF applicants were denied for lack of ID
There is so much more in this study and, trust me, you will be hearing about it from me a lot next year! But right now, as we close out the year, here’s what this tells us:
Our work is far, far from done. Every single day people need IDs to live their lives and we have to be on the ground helping them.
This problem is big, and growing. We need real policy solutions, like the IDs for an Inclusive Democracy Act introduced to Congress this year by our 501c4 Project ID Action Fund to finally solve this problem for good.
IDs change lives, change families, change futures.
In these few days before the year is over, will you commit to helping us make sure that every American has an ID?
