Without ID, poor Americans can struggle for basic services from the government as well as to vote. A new article in the Washington Post by Patrick Marion Bradley, a writer in Washington, had the story:

As of 2006, according to New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice, up to 11 percent of U.S. adults had no government-provided photo ID. Since then, federal requirements for IDs have grown tougher, contributing to a loop that can help keep people trapped in poverty. For poor Americans, IDs are a lifeline — a key to unlocking services and opportunities, from housing to jobs to education. And in states with strict voter ID laws, the lack of an ID can hinder voting. “This is a huge issue for people who are homeless and poor in general,” says Maria Foscarinis, executive director of the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty. “Without an ID, basically you don’t exist.”

The cost to civil society groups looking to help is substantial as well:

Across the country, churches bear similar costs. Memphis’s First Presbyterian Church spends about $7,000 a year on its ID and birth certificate assistance. The Stewpot at Dallas’s First Presbyterian Church budgets $50,000 annually — and spent more than $60,000 in 2016. In Minneapolis, the Basilica of St. Mary’s St. Vincent de Paul Ministries spent nearly $70,000 in 2016. The basilica sends so much money to Hennepin County that the local government instituted a voucher system and directly bills the church. My calls to a Las Vegas program went to voice mail, where the greeting said the operation was out of funds.