Keta J. Cowan, CEO of Synod Community Services, gave a presentation to Ypsilanti city council members on Oct. 7, advocating for the Washtenaw County I.D. Project.
The project was designed to bring residents who lack identification cards out of the shadows.
“It is estimated that 11 percent of all residents in Washtenaw County lack proof of who they are,” she said.
That includes 18 percent of citizens over the age of 65, 4-6,000 (estimated) undocumented immigrants, 25 percent of African-Americans, 20 percent of Asian- Americans and 19 percent of Latino-Americans, according to the Washtenaw I.D. Task Force.
Cowan said that lack of identification does not only affect undocumented immigrants, but homeless people, those with mental illness, the transgender community and low socioeconomic status individuals as well.
“The state I.D. card eligibility criteria excludes a substantial amount of people,” Cowan said. “One of the goals of the I.D. Task Force is to determine how we could come to know who lives in the county. In order to provide services, we need to know what the needs are.”
The Real I.D. Act of 2005 established more stringent criteria in order to obtain proof of identification and eliminated a number of exclusions and exceptions that the Secretary of State once made, such as a name being spelled differently on the birth certificate than it is on the social security card.
“There are a number of people, particularly elderly African-Americans, who have never had birth certificates or whose births were registered at hospitals that have been closed,” Cowan said. “Those records are, simply, lost. Without that foundation access to the state I.D. card isn’t possible.”
The task force has designed an identification card that looks similar to the current Michigan driver’s license, with the intended purpose of enabling residents to fully participate in civic life.
“We designed it to look as official as possible,” Cowan said. “But it has not been proposed to the state, yet.”
The council unanimously carried a motion to support its approval.
Council also carried a unanimous motion to approve a two-year contract with Midwest Employers Casualty Company for the administration of the city’s Worker’s Compensation Program.
The contract will run from Nov. 1, 2014 through Oct. 31, 2016 for $96, 236.
Erika Lindsay, of Ypsilanti, was nominated for the Historic District Commission. Lindsay graduated from the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Michigan with a Master’s degree in Conservation and in the 3G Program.
Her full resume as well as the full reading of the meeting’s minutes can be found by visiting cityofypsilanti.gov.
