May 13 Tax Filing 101 for Homeless Service Providers

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Event Summary

Economic Impact Payments, more commonly known as stimulus checks, have been a lifeline for countless Americans struggling to stay afloat during the pandemic.  Millions of Americas have struggled to claim their Economic Impact Payments, particularly people experiencing homelessness (check out this article in the Seattle Times for details).

Those who have not yet claimed some or all their stimulus funds can still claim their benefit by filing a 2020 tax return. The Coalition on Homelessness, in partnership with United Way of King County, created these training materials to help case managers and mutual aid volunteers help people experiencing homelessness file their taxes, with an eye towards ensuring that stimulus payments get to those who need them. Presentation materials below:

Stimulus Check Advocacy Follow Up:

Community Mail programs (and they clients they serve) have reported issues with receiving stimulus checks from the IRS. We believe these addresses have been flagged due to fraud concerns. After collecting extensive feedback from clients and staff at our member organizations, we brought our concerns to our allies in the Federal government in hopes of reaching a solution.

Thanks to feedback from our members, the IRS will be re-issuing stimulus checks to countless unhoused folks in King County.

On Friday May 7, the IRS agreed to remove the address suspicion flag from the addresses we reported having issues, and have agreed to re-issue all retuned paper stimulus checks to clients at these locations. Payments will be re-issued within the next 3-4 weeks, we encourage you to follow up in mid-June to confirm payments were received. This would not have happened without dedicated advocacy and follow up from our members in direct service positions. We want to say thank you to Dawn Whitson and the outreach case managers on the REACH team for elevating this, and to the staff at Representative Pramila Jayapal’s office for taking this information and pushing for a solution.

Address flags have been removed from the following locations:

  • Reach- 2133 3rd Avenue, #116, Seattle, WA 98121
  • Compass Housing Alliance- 77 S Washington St, Seattle, WA 98104
  • Ballard Food Bank- 5130 Leary Ave NW, Seattle, WA 98107
  • St. Vincent de Paul Georgetown Food Bank. 5972 4th Ave S, Seattle 98108
  • New Bethlehem Family Day Center. 11920 NE 80th St, Suite 100, Kirkland WA 98033
  • Kent Family Engagement Center. 1225 W Smith St, Kent WA 98030
  • Federal Way Day Center. 33505 13th Pl S, Suite D. Federal Way, WA 98003

We believe there are other social service addresses that may have been flagged as well. If you believe your program has been impacted, please email Jason@homelessinfo.org so we can pass the information along to Representative Jayapal’s staff.