SD lawmakers send two bills to appropriations to help homeless people access vital records

PIERRE — A pair of bills that would help people experiencing homelessness gain access to vital documents passed out of a House of Representatives committee Tuesday morning. The legislation now heads to House Appropriations because of the cost to the state for providing the documents.

HB 1098 would waive the $15 fee for homeless people trying to get a copy of their birth certificate, while HB 1131 would waive the $28 fee for homeless people getting a non-driver’s license ID card. The bills were brought by two Sioux Falls representatives from both sides of the aisle and stem from a legislative conference they attended this summer.

And while Republican Rep. Tyler Tordsen, who sponsored HB 1098, faced no opposition testimony, Democratic Rep. Kadyn Wittman, who sponsored HB 1131, had to argue against the state's Department of Public Safety as to why her bill was necessary.

Many shelters and non-profits across South Dakota have the opportunity to help those experiencing homelessness apply for a waiver for the state-issued ID, according to DPS in their opposition testimony. The department added the state’s revenue stream would be impacted if HB 1131 were to pass.

“You’re codifying services that already exist,” said John Broers, the director of Driver Licensing at DPS, said.

No fiscal note was attached to the bill. In 2023, Wittman sponsored a similar bill that would have waived driver’s license fees for those under the federal poverty level and the cost to the state was $86,000.

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The organizations that do provide the service, which includes creating a letter to send to the DMV when the person goes to apply for the ID, do it at a cost to themselves or rely on various grants, Wittman and other proponents countered.

Julie Becker, the executive director of the St. Francis House in Sioux Falls, spoke in committee Tuesday and explained that while her homeless shelter had helped more than 200 guests receive state IDs, it cost the St. Francis House more than $6,000. The shelter is able to pay for these costs through a perpetual fund set up by a donor after they died.

Becker, along with multiple proponents of both bills, said a state-issued ID is the first step for many to access employment, to find housing and to start rebuilding their lives.

“So you can see the economic value back to our state, our guests have paid an astronomical amount of debt,” she said. “Our guests paid almost $57,000 back in back-rear child support, they’ve paid $177,000 to other debts such as landlords, utilities… and most importantly, the big one, they’ve paid almost $343,000 back to South Dakota in the form of restitution and fines.”

Overall, guests of the St. Francis House have paid back $2.7 million to the state since the homeless organization started tracking guest debt payments in 2015.

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Wittman added in her rebuttal that the state has already established a presence providing state-issued IDs at no cost to those leaving incarceration and that the regulation within the Department of Labor to get a state-issued ID fee waived were burdensome.

“Yes, [DOL] will help you get your state ID but only after you’ve met with a job coach three times over a month,” Wittman said, noting she had run for office because of this bill. “And that may not sound like a lot to us but a month is a long time to be experiencing homelessness when you want to get back to work.”

HB 1131 was passed to House Appropriations unanimously after an amendment that would ensure the ID was only issued once, and that instead of a letter with the signature of the person experiencing homelessness and the homeless provider, the documentation became an affidavit.

HB 1098 had little opposition. Tordsen explained birth certificates are already issued at no cost if a child is being enrolled in a Head Start program or is being enrolled in an American Legion baseball team.

If passed, in the first year the cost to the state to cover issuing birth certificates would be $16,623 while in subsequent years the costs would be $4,113, according to the bill’s fiscal note.

Discussion mainly from lawmakers sitting on the House Health and Human Services Committee focused on what organizations could help provide the necessary documentation to start the process of applying, such as a food bank or non-profit that regularly interacts with a person experiencing homelessness, and if the bill should focus solely on people born in South Dakota.

Rep. Kameron Nelson, D-Sioux Falls, said for many people experiencing homelessness there are multiple points of access to receive services, from food banks to shelters or community health clinics.

“In that space, they can recognize different markers of someone in need,” he said.

Rep. Brian Mulder, R-Sioux Falls, added striking food banks from the bill could have unintended consequences.

The amendment to strike the food bank wording was withdrawn. Language was added to ensure that only people born in South Dakota could apply for the birth certificate fee waiver and the bill passed onto House Appropriations unanimously.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Homeless people in SD could soon get free IDs, birth certificates