So with the new regime executive order declaring it essentially illegal to be unhoused, people at risk might be thinking, “how do they classify me as homeless if I am surfing between friends or family or shelters?”
One of the big answers to this is the practice of debanking. If your financial institutions catch wind that you don’t have a stable address, they will try to close your accounts and send your balance as a cashier’s check to your last legal address. At-risk people understand the many, many scenarios where even just this process could be devastating.
Some unexpected ways you can get de-banked:
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your apartment doesn’t have a legal address
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you lose home owner’s insurance or your coverage changes and your bank decides it doesn’t like that
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your building’s owner defaults
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fire
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flood
You may be at risk and just now realizing it. If you have an MH diagnosis and you don’t have two back-up legal addresses, you are on this Ex O.
Anyway, do not get debanked. Have legal address back-up plans EVEN IF YOU TRY TO FLEE THE COUNTRY because you do not want the regime classifying you as someone they want to put in the camps.
Sorry for another US-centric post.
Back when I vandwelled, I was able to set up a “declaration of domicile” so my legal address was at a mail forwarding center. You can have mail forwarded to a local post office box, or to a different address (if you’re crashing at a friend’s house or something.)
It’s a useful option when you have to move around a lot, since if you move you don’t have to change your address - just change where your mail gets forwarded to.
It does require paying for a PO Box, but IMO it’s worth it.
Though I recommend actually knowing something about the town or city of the forwarding center you use. I once had a job interviewer be from the same town as the one on my license, and had to bullshit as if I actually knew the place (and didn’t merely drive through it on a freeway a couple times.)
Unfortunately there are systems that will reject PO boxes - credit applications, mortgage and loan applications. It’s increasing and I think they’re catching wind that nomads do it, so they challenge for a “physical address” which of course must match your credit file. This is a nice way to shit on people who are trying to get out of transitional housing too, since they can easily spot group homes and halfway houses.
UPS stores (and many others) offer mailboxes, similar to PO boxes. Unlike PO boxes, they will accept packages from other shippers as well as USPS. Also, they’ll only put mail in your box if it is addressed to you specifically. No bulk mail or “Current Resident” bullshit.
Sigh, I was worried they’d be getting targeted.
I wish I had more to add. But I’m just tired.
Hey do you know if this works for traveling nurses or if there is a different way that they do it?
Works just fine, just make sure you do your mail forward with the paper form, keep your payments current, and do the verification of the forward in person as is required. Fwiw you can use any address you have access to to start the PO box or other accounts as well, even if you won’t have that access for long. Source: I do mail
The good news is that your post isn’t really something you have to worry about(social media is propagandizing this), it’s only going to impact state funded housing for people and aim to funnel money to private prison contractors for any homeless people who assault ICE or w/e other federal agents. The bad news is that its rooted in hate and going to damage section 8 housing access, generally making people poorer/more worse off in the long run.
If you have to travel for extended periods of time, it’s not a bad idea. It does take a little extra time for your mail to get to you (since it’s being shipped twice.) If that isn’t a problem, I can’t think of any reason it wouldn’t work for travel nurses.