Having no address often means not knowing where you’re going to sleep tonight, and it can also mean a potential barrier to voting. Enter EveryOne Home, a United Way partner organization that is working on homeless voter registration in time for the November 6th election.
EveryOne home coordinates Alameda County’s plan to end homelessness, collaborating among numerous community stakeholders. Their biggest role in the homeless voter registration drive is to spread the word to service providers, providing voter registration forms and important information about how people who are homeless can still get registered and vote.
Not having an address or photo id cannot prevent homeless voter registration.
According to Allison Millar, EveryOne Home’s Advocacy Associate, several factors that can make registration and voting more challenging for the homeless include not having an address, not having an ID, not receiving info in the mail, and not having a computer to look up where polling places are. She emphasizes, though, that not having an address or photo ID cannot prevent someone from voting in California.
“We are reaching out to homeless and formerly homeless people to let them know that every voice matters,” said Allison. “Voting is a place where people who are disenfranchised and left out of the civic process have an equal voice.
“The ultimate goal of homeless-serving agencies is helping people regain permanent housing and thrive in the community, and civic engagement is a part of that.
“Each of us has a responsibility to ourselves and our community to do what we can to see positive change, and voting is one place where we have that power. For the homeless who are often denied access to power, it’s a crucial avenue.”
Click here to learn more about EveryOne Home’s work with the homeless.
EveryOne Home is one of United Way’s Roadmap Partners which includes dozens of nonprofits, government agencies, corporations, and labor organizations who are coming together in our movement to cut poverty in half by 2020.
