You Don't Need a Home to Vote

By Suemedha Sood, WireTap. Posted August 26, 2004.

Pamela Wynn is now a graduate student in New Brighton, Minnesota, but she used to be out on the streets. Poor, hungry, and homeless, she says she never used to care about politics. Now voting has become an essential part of her life. There is no way she will fail to make it out to the polls this November, and her personal history has everything to do with that.

“I feel like our government has abandoned the poor and I have to do whatever I can,” she says. Wynn sees voting as an essential way to battle the feeling of powerlessness that many poor and homeless people may feel. She also sees it as “a way to take a stand whether anybody pays attention or not. It’s a place to start, to say, ‘This is enough!’”

Wynn feels that voting is particularly important for poor Americans, a group that turns out fewer voters than any other. “Right now our voice is not being heard, so we have to get it out there,” she insists. “I think right now the people who are voting are those whose needs are being met while the people who are struggling are too busy trying stay alive.”

In light of the upcoming elections, political activists have been working hard to give political voice to the many Americans living in poverty. Advocates for the poor are making voting a priority because they know that the reasons for which poor people tend not to vote are all of the same reasons for which they must vote.

On Thursday July 22nd, activists all over the nation organized the first ever National Low Income and Homeless Voter Registration Day. Together with shelters and other nonprofit groups, national organizations like the National Coalition for the Homeless and the National Low Income Housing Coalition were able to register hundreds of low income Americans in 16 states and Washington D.C.

Voter mobilization is not a new concept for the National Coalition for the Homeless. Recognizing the barriers standing between homeless individuals and their right to vote, the NCH launched its “You Don’t Need a Home to Vote” Campaign in 1992. Using a five-pronged strategy, which included registration, education, get-out-the-vote (GOTV) efforts, state and federal legislation, and litigation, the campaign has successfully registered thousands of homeless people since its beginning.

Over the past twelve years, the NCH has worked with homeless shelters around the country. The group also encourages nonprofit sponsors to invite candidates to speak at voter education events. Often, county election officials visit shelters to hold training sessions on how to use the voting machines on Election Day. The campaign has also been successful in terms of legislation and litigation. As a result of NCH efforts, 10 states have passed laws expanding and clarifying voting rights for the homeless since 1992. An opinion issued this May, by Virginia’s Attorney General also made it possible for unsheltered homeless citizens to register to vote in the state.

On the federal level, the NCH has introduced a bill in three different congressional sessions that would amend the Voting Rights Act to give homeless citizens the unqualified right to vote on the national level. After the upcoming election, the NCH plans to re-introduce the bill for a fourth time.

Grassroots efforts, however, constitute the true driving force of the campaign. On National Low Income and Homeless Voter Registration Day, for instance, around 50 groups worked to get low income and homeless people registered. Many registration drives were held by youth groups. Michael Stoops, Project Director of the “You Don’t Need a Home to Vote” Campaign, believes that young people have a vested interest in homelessness issues.

“The average age of a homeless person is around 25, so there is a youthful nature to the homeless population,” says Stoops. He also thinks that young people make up a group that tends to care more about poverty issues than other Americans. “I believe that young people have not yet grown accustomed to the fact that we have homeless people living on our streets and sidewalks,” he says. “Young people still ask ‘why?’”

Kim Schaffer, Outreach Director of the National Low Income Housing Coalition agrees. “We reach many people under 25 by virtue of the fact that younger people tend to be less established in their jobs and are likely to be on the margins,” says Schaffer. “I think that certainly many young people can relate to wondering where the next month’s rent is going to come from or working two jobs even with a college degree.” But, she adds, there may be more to it than the shared struggle to survive. “I think homeless people and young people have a lot in common in terms of mistrust of the system,” says Schaffer.

This makes sense when one considers the fact that youth and low-income citizens comprise the two groups with the lowest voter turnout in the nation. Another factor, which may also account for their mistrust of the system, is the widespread disenfranchisement of both groups. Both students and homeless people encounter unfair obstacles on their way to the polls. In several documented cases of recent years, students have been unfairly kept from both registering and voting in their college town.

Suemeda Sood, 19, is a student at the University of Virginia.

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