What Cities Take When They Sweep Homeless Encampments

As if homeless people don't already bear a large risk of losing their IDs, careless (or malicious) governments add another risk:

> While many cities instruct workers to store identification, service providers told ProPublica about people they were working with who struggled to access Medicaid, disability benefits, food stamps, sobriety programs and housing after their documents were confiscated in encampment removals.

The description of the article on the Propublica front page makes clear that the identification documents in question are the major ones that naive people imagine almost every citizen to have:

> From birth certificates to loved ones’ ashes, these are just some of the belongings cities take when they clear homeless encampments.