Free documents for people without housing: certificates and ID

It is the law that makes free the three documents most needed to get back into the system: the birth or marriage certificate, the CRIM certifications and the DTOP identification card. It also requires those three agencies to have a liaison person and to let someone you trust accompany you through the process.

To be a homeless person and be able to accredit it. The law accepts several forms of evidence: that you receive some government or non-profit organisation service; that you are staying overnight at an emergency shelter; and/or that you are part of a transitional or permanent housing programme of governmental or non-governmental entities and were identified as homeless. The law adds that those entities must issue a certification to that effect, so the evidence is produced by whoever serves you, not by you.

• To accredit the condition of homeless person by any of the routes the law accepts: receiving a government or non-profit organisation service, staying overnight at an emergency shelter, and/or being part of a transitional or permanent housing programme and having been identified as homeless.Verified against the official source
• The certification the entity serving you must issue to that effect. The law places that obligation on the entity: “Those entities must issue a certification to that effect.”Verified against the official source

• Certification from the governmental or non-profit entity accrediting your condition as a homeless person.

1. 1

   Step 1: The three documents the law makes free

   Here they are in full because each is issued by a different agency. Homeless persons shall have the right that “the Vital Records Registry issue to them, free of cost, birth or marriage certificates or birth or marriage verifications”; that “the Municipal Revenue Collection Center issue to them, free of cost, the certifications it emits”; and that “the Department of Transportation and Public Works issue, free of cost, an identification card.”

2. 2

   Step 2: How the condition is accredited

   Here is the part that opens the door, and the law accepts more than one route. Applicants “must accredit their condition as a homeless person by evidencing that they receive some government or non-profit organisation service, that they are staying overnight at an emergency shelter and/or that they are part of a transitional or permanent housing programme of governmental or non-governmental entities and were identified as homeless.” You need not meet all three: the law separates them with “and/or.”

3. 3

   Step 3: The certification is issued by whoever serves you

   It is a short sentence and it lifts a weight: “Those entities must issue a certification to that effect.” That is, the shelter, the housing programme or the organisation serving you is the one with the duty to issue the certification, not you to obtain it on your own.

4. 4

   Step 4: How often each one is free

   The three frequencies are different and worth being clear about. From the Vital Records Registry, “once a year.” From the Municipal Revenue Collection Center, “once every three (3) months.” And the Department of Transportation and Public Works identification card, “at least once during the identification card’s validity,” and the law adds: “at the renewal date they shall have the right to renew it free of cost.”

5. 5

   Step 5: Ask for the liaison person

   It is the fact that keeps you from being sent from one line to another, and it is written as an agency duty: “These agencies must have a liaison person in charge of handling homeless persons’ requests at their central and regional offices or wherever they provide services to citizens.” It is not only at the central office: the law says wherever they provide services.

6. 6

   Step 6: You may be accompanied

   The law expressly allows it and for many people this is what makes the process possible. “Those agencies shall allow a representative authorised by the homeless person to accompany them and help them obtain the certifications and the identification card.” Accompany and help: both are in the text.

7. 7

   Step 7: The agencies must budget for this

   It answers the “there are no funds.” The law orders that the Vital Records Registry, the Municipal Revenue Collection Center and the Department of Transportation and Public Works “shall adopt regulations to process the rights recognised to homeless persons by virtue of this law,” and “likewise, shall have the obligation to identify recurring funds to defray the operational costs by requesting them in their annual budgets.”

8. 8

   Step 8: Since when it governs

   The law did not take effect on the day of its approval: “This Act shall take effect ninety (90) days after its approval.” The certified copy we read carries the Department of State certification dated August 6, 2025.

Each document is requested at its agency: the birth or marriage certificate and its verifications at the Vital Records Registry; the CRIM certifications at the Municipal Revenue Collection Center; and the identification card at the Department of Transportation and Public Works. At all three, the law requires a liaison person to handle homeless persons’ requests, and that an authorised representative be allowed to accompany you. The certification accrediting your condition is issued by the entity serving you. If what you need are the housing and treatment programmes, ASSMCA’s catalogue — which includes its homeless division — has its own guide here, as does the birth certificate in general.

• Paying for the birth certificate: the law makes it free of cost once a year for homeless persons.
• Believing you must meet all three accreditation routes: the law separates them with “and/or,” one is enough.
• Thinking you must obtain the evidence on your own: the law obliges the entity serving you to issue the certification.
• Not asking for the liaison person: the law requires all three agencies to have one, and not only at the central office.
• Going alone when the process gets hard: the law allows an authorised representative to accompany and help you.
• Confusing the frequencies: Vital Records once a year, CRIM once every three months, and the card at least once during its validity plus the renewal.
• Paying to renew the identification card: the law gives the right to renew it free of cost at the renewal date.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento de Salud de Puerto Rico

  Salud

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov