General Question

wegeedee's avatar

Can you say you live somewhere when its the address for everything about you?

Asked by wegeedee (7points) May 31st, 2014

DMV info,
Driver’s license,
Vehicle registration,
Phone bill,
Bank accounts,
Credit accounts,
Medical records,
Insurance,
School records,
VA records,
All other accounts,
All mail,
And everything else goes to your mailing address..you are homeless.. do you refer to that as where you live?????

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6 Answers

pleiades's avatar

Well this depends…

Do you want to build a snowman?

AshLeigh's avatar

I guess it depends on the situation. If you’re filling something out that just requires an address, then yes, I would.

Seek's avatar

Yep, the homeless population are pretty disenfranchised when it comes to such things. You can’t even register for a PO Box with the USPS unless you have a home address anymore. Make sense of that.

If you’re lucky enough to have a friend, it’s possible to “rent a room” from a friend for a ridiculous rate (a dollar a year?) and have them write up a basic lease, and sign it, and basically pretend to be your landlord. Then you can claim that is your home address for one bill, and then take that bill and your lease, sign up for a PO box, and get your mail there from then on.

If you don’t have someone willing to give you a fake lease, you’re pretty much stuck going through the process of getting a Homeless ID. Which, y’know, looks great to have the word “TRANSIENT” blazoned across your ID.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/advocates-for-homeless-want-to-make-it-easier-to-get-a-state-id/1277155

One of the biggest problems advocates say they encounter is getting birth certificates: An ID is required to obtain the document, which is also one of the major pieces needed to obtain an ID. Paperwork is next to impossible to retrieve from some states, and in some cases people don’t know in which county they formerly lived. Officials say the situation is even worse for married women, who must provide documents verifying any chain of name changes.

If you are really homeless – like, can’t get into a shelter homeless – you’re fucked, thanks to the two proofs of residential address requirement.

And just try getting a job when you don’t have a valid driver’s license or state ID.

All info given for Florida, which is where I live

Seek's avatar

And with all that rant that may or may not have been what you’re talking about, legally speaking your home address is the place you sleep at night.

antimatter's avatar

I don’t have a physical address, in fact the closest thing to an address for me is my post box

Espiritus_Corvus's avatar

I would use all the documentation you listed as your official address, and, for official purposes, go with that. What Seek said is true in Florida, but I understand other states are less of a conundrum and more understanding of the homeless situation. Florida’s political leadership seems to want only the wealthy and their approved menials to reside in Florida. It’s becoming increasingly obvious that they would like everyone else to please leave. There are homeless shelters run by the Florida Sheriff’s Association that offer their homeless clients, as one of their first options to solve their homeless problem, a one-way ticket to anywhere in the US if they can prove that there is someone willing to take them in on the other end. It’s basically deportation with a smile. It’s nice of them, but it shouldn’t be the first option. It doesn’t solve the problem, it results in only shunting the problem off to someone else, and it is socially irresponsible in a state as wealthy as Florida.

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