ICLC’s Vital Documents Clinic

Affordable housing and homelessness

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

The homelessness crisis in LA County has reached epidemic proportions, with more than 75,000 people experiencing homelessness on any given night. Individuals experiencing homelessness are susceptible to trauma, including lack of consistent access to healthcare, food, and sanitary stations. They are more likely to use emergency rooms and face violence while unsheltered. During “clean-ups” conducted by the city, they are also at risk of having all their possessions thrown into dumpsters.
For one group of people, getting off the streets is all but impossible – people without a birth certificate. These individuals cannot get a driver’s license, a job, a social security number, apply for food stamps or other benefits, vote, or rent a home. Because they are not even eligible to access society’s basic resources, they fall under the radar of most legal aid organizations and government agencies. Their lack of a birth certificate and other vital documents makes them invisible.

ICLC recognizes that a crucial step to preventing and ending homelessness is to establish an individual’s identity and obtain their vital documents. ICLC’s Vital Documents Clinic will focus on this crucial step and tackle it through a combination of direct services and policy advocacy. The Vital Documents Clinic is a bi-weekly clinic to assist unhoused people in obtaining vital documents ranging from birth certificates, consulate records of birth abroad, court records, identification cards, drivers' licenses, and fee waivers. Obtaining these documents often requires a lawyer’s intervention due to the limitation of people obtaining their own documents without proper identification and a confusing maze of differing laws between states. Through repetition, the Clinic will allow us to identify common issues to create educational tools on how to obtain a document, assist in creating next-step guides for getting an ID, and serve as a mailing address to store documents until pick up. Procuring these records will be instrumental in helping participants access services, whether it be housing programs, public benefits, or even obtaining employment. The project will also identify policy advocacy related to the barriers unhoused people face when attempting to get vital documents. We will work with The National Conversation About IDs, a network of service providers working to make systemic changes in the process of obtaining vital documents.

ICLC’s Vital Documents Clinic will help homeless and precariously housed people gain the documents they need to access resources to obtain and maintain housing. Project impact will include:
People experiencing homelessness will have the identification necessary to remove barriers to housing, employment, and public benefits;
Homeless service providers will know the importance of vital documents and have the legal support necessary to help their most vulnerable clients; and
Changing rules to simplify the process that individuals experiencing homelessness have to go through to obtain birth certificates or state-issues identification cards. The project has the potential to make changes on a local and national level, as many clients live in California but were born elsewhere. The inconsistencies in laws between states regarding vital documents create an undue burden on vulnerable individuals and families.

The Vital Documents Clinic is a recently launched project that will enable us to assist the most vulnerable clients in removing barriers to housing stability. The project will be a success if, before the end of the grant period, we:
1. Conduct 18 clinics, serving a minimum of five clients at each clinic;
2. Conduct training on the importance of vital documents for at least four collaborative partners; and
3. Expand ICLC’s policy advocacy efforts to include improving access to vital documents, such as advocating for the expansion of fee waivers for vital documents in other states for vulnerable, low-income individuals.
Data and outcomes will be tracked via Legal Server, our came management system, to determine:
1. The number of clinics and clients assisted;
2. The number of trainings conducted for collaborative partners;
3. The number of policy initiatives advocated for during the grant period; and
5. Client satisfaction with the services provided