AN ACT Relating to establishing the identification assistance and support program to assist individuals experiencing homelessness; adding a new section to chapter 43.185C RCW; creating a new section; and providing an expiration date.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The legislature finds that the lack of valid identification can be a barrier for exiting homelessness and achieving independence, as possession of valid identification is a prerequisite to securing employment, accessing housing, higher education, military service, and applying for many federally funded services. The legislature recognizes that procuring documentation to prove identity can be expensive, time consuming, and requiring expertise to navigate technical systems. The legislature intends to create a program to aid individuals in collecting documentation of their identity to procure a valid form of identification more quickly. The legislature intends to measure the efficacy of the project by studying its impact on decreasing time spent unemployed and experiencing homelessness, among other factors.

(1) Subject to the availability of amounts appropriated for this specific purpose, the department shall establish an identification assistance and support program to assist homeless persons in collecting documentation and procuring an identicard issued by the department of licensing. This program shall be implemented beginning July 1, 2021.

(2) The department shall contract for operation of the identification assistance and support program in one county west of the crest of the Cascade mountain range with a population of one million or more and one county east of the crest of the Cascade mountain range with a population of five hundred thousand or more. If no outside entity or entities are available to operate the program or specific parts of the program, the department may operate the program or the specific parts that are not operated by an outside entity.

(3) The department shall evaluate the program and compile data on the number of persons served, the number of persons who were subsequently able to procure identicards, any reasons volunteered by persons for why they need identicards, and other information as available including, but not limited to, rates of employment and housing status. By November 1, 2021, and annually thereafter, the department must submit a report to the appropriate committees of the legislature and the governor summarizing the department's findings.