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Cincinnati Gives the OK on Photo ID Cards for Homeless and Immigrants

ID Cards for Homeless and Immigrants in OhioRecently, Cincinnati’s city council authorized photo ID cards for the homeless as well as immigrants and others. These ID cards will be accepted as valid forms of identification by municipal agencies and police officers. (triblive.com)

According to advocates for the ID cards, the cards will be the first of their kind in an Ohio city. However, similar ID cards have been implemented and accepted in other states across the U.S. These ID cards are not designed to replace a driver’s license, but will serve as an additional form of identification.

Several officials from the Metropolitan Area Religious Coalition of Cincinnati have stated that the cards will be helpful to the city as a whole, but more specifically to some of the most vulnerable individuals within the population.

According to the city’s Immigration Task Force, one of the problems that the ID cards will help to solve is that legal immigrants, non-driving elderly and others who aren’t able to obtain a driver’s license are hesitant to report crimes, even if they themselves are the victim. The hope is that the ID cards will remove some of this reluctance since it will be understood that the cards will be accepted by law enforcement.

Margaret Fox, the executive director of the coalition that issues the ID cards, says that they will be helpful in many different ways. “It will help those who are the most vulnerable feel more a part of the community,” she said. “It’s a general ID card that anyone can apply for, but the beauty of it is that it provides photo identification with a residential address for those who don’t have other IDs.”

The cards will be available at a price of $15.00, and all applicants must provide two forms of identification in order to receive the card. These identification forms may include a passport, birth certificate, letters from social services, consular IDs, etc.

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