The problem
A briefadres is the door to nearly every other right
What it is
Without an address you do not exist to the institutions
With a briefadres you are entered in the Dutch personal records database, the Basisregistratie Personen. That registration is the precondition for almost everything that follows: a passport or identity card, DigiD (the national digital identity), benefits, health insurance, a bank account, a place on a waiting list.
Anyone without an address cannot register. Anyone who cannot register gets none of those things. And without those things you will not get an address. That is the circle, and a briefadres is the one place where you can break it.
So a briefadres is not a favour. It is the means by which people work their way out of homelessness, or keep from falling deeper into it. We see it as a basic right, and at the same time as a provision society has put in place to prevent homelessness.
What we heard
Three things the people said themselves
Over this summer we interviewed homeless people, worked out the municipal process for granting a briefadres, and spoke both with municipal staff who decide on them and with support workers who help people apply.
- Many people want one A briefadres is very much wanted by the people we spoke to. It is often the first step that makes the rest possible, and they know it.
- On their own, it rarely works Without a support worker, people find applying hard. The form, the attachments and the evidence ask for exactly what somebody without a home has least of: all kinds of information, papers, and an overview.
- You cannot tell where you stand Applying takes a long time. While you are applying it is often unclear how far you have got, and if you are refused it is often unclear why.
What an app can do about it
And what an app is never going to do
An app can take over the paperwork. It can remember what you said once, so you do not have to fill it in seven times. It can say in plain language where you stand and what the next step is. That is exactly where things broke down for the people we spoke to, so there is ground to be gained.
An app cannot deliver the briefadres. Getting one requires a conversation at the municipal counter, and whoever has one has to go there in person to collect their post. Rajto cannot and does not want to change that, because it matters that the municipality can check whether somebody really is who they say they are.
Read on
What we built from it
In the app, the application has become a fifteen-step filling-in exercise, and at the end there is one file with your name on it.