This echoes my experience working with homeless and at-risk people in DC during the 2000s. Nearly everyone I knew who had been on the streets for a significant length of time (> 3 months) was caught up in the bureaucracy of securing housing assistance. Many of them faced the issues described in the article around proper identification. All of them were frustrated by waiting lists for affordable housing that stretched into multiple years.

I empathize with everyone involved here and I hope to see greater public and political will around solving identification (and voter registration) issues for disadvantaged populations.