How is the term homelessness defined?

WASHINGTON – Being homeless should not affect your right to vote.

At least that’s the message from the National Coalition for the Homeless.

Last week, the coalition held its bi-annual homeless voter registration week: You don’t need a home to vote.

Several nationwide homeless advocacy groups, including the National Alliance to End Homelessness, National Center on Homelessness and Poverty and the National Low Income Housing Coalition, joined the effort to register homeless voters across the country.

Michael Stoops, the executive director of the National Coalition for Homeless, said his goal was to register 25,000 homeless people nationwide. Stoops said, however, he has no way of tracking this number since advocates work with so many agencies.

Stoops hasn’t seen this much interest among homeless voters since the coalition began its registration week in 1992, he said.

“As we’ve been finding when we do our voting drives every two years, in any city about one-third of homeless people are registered to vote,” Stoops said.

Stoops stressed the importance of getting homeless people to the polls as a way to keeping them engaged in society.

“When you’re not working, because you can’t find work, you have time to read the New York Times cover to cover,” Stoops said. “I would actually rate the current affairs knowledge of homeless folks as high as everyone else’s.”

To register residents, the coalition works with homeless shelters, soup kitchens and housing authorities to encourage the agencies to sign up homeless and low-income voters when they walk through the doors.

In Washington, for instance, the coalition has sent several volunteers to parks to register voters and has worked with numerous shelters and soup kitchens throughout the metro area.

Last week alone, Maryanne Ali registered ten voters at D.C. Central Kitchen’s culinary job-training class.

Advocacy groups are excited about the voter registration week, but some legislators have expressed opposition to these efforts.

In several states, including Ohio and Indiana, strict laws have been passed requiring voters to show a state-issued i.d. at the polls.

This can be an obstacle for the homeless, since many of them don’t have the means to get an identification card and have more of a chance getting their documents stolen.

“This really is a major barrier to homeless folks,” Stoops said, “because whether you’re living on the streets or in a shelter you’re kind of like a tortoise carrying everything on your back.”

In the meantime, homeless advocacy groups are finding their own ways to fight restrictive voter i.d. laws. In Ohio, for instance, early voting laws have allowed voters to bypass the i.d. regulation.

At the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless in Cleveland, Executive Director Brian Davis is taking advantage of these laws and using this week to expand his organization’s voter registration efforts.

“Well, I mean in Ohio we’ve been fighting since 2004,” Davis said in a phone interview. “Just trying to preserve the right for getting homeless people to the ballot box -- and they just seem to keep trying to put up new barriers.”

Between Sept. 30 and Oct. 6, Ohioans can register and vote early at the same time, Davis said. This requires just the last four digits of a Social Security number.

Davis’ organization plans to take a fleet of vans and buses around to shelters and soup kitchens to pick up people and drive them to the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections.

The organization’s goal was to register 2,000 in a week. As of late September, Davis had already signed up 400 homeless people.