Austin Launches 'MyPass Initiative' To Help Homeless People

AUSTIN, TX — City officials on Wednesday announced the first step in launching an initiative aimed at improving identity services for homeless people.

Dubbed the "MyPass Initiative," the project is designed to provide homeless people with the option to store their vital documents digitally using new blockchain technology. The effort will be introduced as part of a Pop-Up Resource Clinic event hosted by The City of Austin and community organizations on Thursday, April 19, officials said in a press advisory.

Dell Medical School at The University of Texas, the City of Austin Office of Innovation, and Austin-Travis County EMS will be on hand to provide information to people experiencing homelessness about the MyPass Initiative and begin seeking feedback from users, officials added.

Related story: Austin Among Semifinalists In U.S. Mayors Challenge Competition

The project is part of the city's entry into Bloomberg Philanthropies’ 2018 U.S. Mayors Challenge. Austin is among 35 “Champion Cities” to receive a $100,000 to build a pilot of their innovative civic solution. A grand prize winner of the competition will be awarded $5 million in October, with four additional cities earning another $1 million each to further develop and implement a sustainable solution.

Lack of identification can often mean barriers to, or delays in, access to housing, employment, healthcare and other critical services, officials noted in explaining the initiative's goal. With the MyPass Initiative, The City of Austin will use blockchain technology to provide homeless residents with a private digital key enabling them to securely store and access their personal records at any time, officials explained.

"One of the biggest challenges faced by those in our community experiencing homelessness is simply keeping track of the documents they need.” Amber Price, Community Health Paramedic with Austin-Travis County EMS, said in a prepared statement. “When you’re homeless it’s easy to have your documents lost or stolen. If we can prevent having to refile paperwork, re-apply for access to services, or even just keep their ID and important records secure, then we can alleviate a huge burden for the homeless community.”

The MyPass Initiative is designed to ensure personal privacy, giving users the choice to grant specific providers permission to view selected documents. These permissions are temporary and automatically expire, ensuring that access to the documents is entirely within users’ control, officials noted.

The initiative aims to relieve administrative burdens for the city and service providers as well. For many experiencing homelessness, important information is fragmented across many organizations, causing fractured service delivery, delays or duplication, and high costs. The Initiative will look to eliminate these miscommunications and missed opportunities with a cost-effective, empowering solution.

"The Mayors Challenge has given us the opportunity to explore a truly innovative solution for an acute challenge facing our city and citizens,” Mayor Steve Adler said in a prepared statement. “This technology has already proven invaluable in helping refugees, and we’re excited to pilot it for the first time in United States. We think of this initiative as something that all of our citizens can use, but we wanted to offer it first to those within our community with the greatest need, and potentially create a program that other cities can learn from."

The MyPass Initiative is currently being piloted for feedback from users within the Austin community, city officials said. For more information on the the City of Austin’s participation in the Bloomberg Mayors Challenge, visit: https://mayorschallenge.bloomberg.org/.

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