EVERY state is required to allow homeless residents to get driver's license

[rvwandering]

This was posted in the HOWA facebook group in answer to a question. This is the first time I've seen this information. Should be helpful to a lot of people.

"ACTUAL SOLUTION: DLD-128 Declaration of Homeless Status https://dmv.nv.gov/pdfforms/dmv128.pdf. EVERY state is required to allow homeless residents to get driver's license, id, etc.. Don't try to explain that you're a nomad and definitely don't talk about travel.. You have moved to the state and are HOMELESS. That's all you explain. Each state will handle it differently but they all have to handle it."

 

[maki2]

^^^ how do you fill out the line “address where I am staying” if you are sleeping in a vehicle that is in a different location every night?

But it does create the option of temporarily staying at a friend or relatives who is not a person you are paying rent to. Or even staying at a state park campground for a few nights.

 

[maki2]

OK you can get a driver’s license if you are homeless but that does not fix two other essential issues vehicle owners all face, vehicle registration and auto insurance. You are still faced with needing street addresses to initiate those.

 

[wayne49]

They are going to require an address where you spend your nights.

If you are truly homeless, then that would be the homeless shelter where real homeless people stay.

When I moved out of NJ prior to "heading west old man", I used a UPS box as an address for my NJ DL, that wasn't an issue with the NJ DMV and my DL.

However, in NJ, the DL and voter id are tied together, and for voting the commercial street address was not valid. I was leaving before the November elections in an odd year, so I did nothing.

The alternative was to falsely allege on a government form that I was hanging out at a homeless shelter.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

To obtain a driver's license in Minnesota:

a valid or recently expired driver's license​

- or -​

a signed and dated on roads skills test certificate.​

I hope other states are not giving out driver's license without something similar.

To obtain an ID card:
https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/dvs/forms-documents/Documents/IdentificationRequirements_English.pdf

 

[user 36441]

I have been using homeless shelters for the past 15 years for that. Most every city or large town has at least one homeless shelter that will not only let you use their address for a permanent address so that you can get your I.D., driver's license, etc., but they will also receive your mail for you.

 

[maki2]

Three years ago when I was last in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle the neighborhood food bank allowed their address to be used
By the homeless population to obtain a driver’s license or ID card. They also allowed people to sign up to receive mail there. But at that time everyone was not required to get a “Real ID”’card or Real ID driver’s license which has a lot more stringent requirements than the older types.

I will have to renew my license in a few years and face these types of issues. Most likely I will change residency to an inexpensive RV park in a small town in Nevada that is many miles away from a large city where the auto insurance rates are influencing the cost. I can save up for a month’s rent. Space rent should not be too bad as I do not need hookups and my travel trailer is small enough that I can fit into a tent site.

Some small towns such as Quartzsite do not have mail delivery to a local address. There is no choice to receive mail other than at a P.O. Box. That means the driver’s license bureaus have to allow a P.O. Box as a designated place to send the new driver’s license.

I have heard from nomadic friends they were able to use one of the BLM LTVAs as a residential Arizona address by showing the rent receipt for that and it is certainly a real bargain to rent there instead of an RV park. Quartzsite does not have USPS mail delivery to any place other than A P.O. Box inside the local Post office or Postal Annex. Even the private mail service mailing address goes to that private mail box company’s P.O. Box at the local USPS Post Office.