Identity as Infrastructure: MyDataBank
A Case for Physical ID Banks in Australia
By Duncan N. Bainbridge, FRSA
Australian Alliance to End Homelessness
Across Australia, homelessness policy focuses rightly on housing supply, service coordination, and income support. Yet one of the most persistent and under-recognised barriers to stability is far more basic: identity.
For people experiencing homelessness, identity documents are rarely secure. Birth certificates are lost during forced moves. Medicare cards are stolen in crisis accommodation. Court papers are damaged while rough sleeping. Centrelink correspondence goes missing.
Replacing these documents costs money, requires further proof of identity, and often triggers bureaucratic loops that delay access to housing, income, employment, and healthcare.
Without identity, the system stalls.
This paper proposes a simple but structurally significant idea: the development of Physical ID Banks, secure facilities where people experiencing homelessness can store original or certified copies of essential documents.
The model is straightforward. Across regional Australia, bank closures have left behind secure buildings with vault infrastructure. These former branches could be repurposed as community-based identity hubs: safe, staffed facilities where individuals can securely store birth certificates, citizenship papers, Medicare cards, court documents, lease agreements, and other critical records.
Importantly, this proposal is not about storing passwords, digital login credentials, or digital copies of the original documents stored in the Physical ID Banks which would be retained in services such as myGov. Nor is it a substitute for Australia’s evolving digital identity framework.
It is a complementary safeguard, a form of physical identity stabilisation for people who cannot rely on secure housing or digital access.
The case for this reform rests on four principles.
First, identity is foundational infrastructure.
We recognise housing, health, and transport as infrastructure because they enable participation in society. Identity does the same.
Without proof of identity, individuals cannot access income support, apply for housing, open bank accounts, or secure employment.
Treating identity security as infrastructure reframes it from an administrative afterthought to a structural necessity.
Second, identity instability perpetuates homelessness.
Repeated document loss creates cycling costs, for individuals and for the state. Caseworkers spend hours replacing documents that are lost again months later. Delays in verification slow housing placements and income support. Secure document storage could reduce duplication, speed up service access, and lower administrative burden.
Third, this is an opportunity to repurpose declining civic assets.
Bank branch closures have hollowed out regional high streets. Transforming former bank vaults into identity hubs is both practical and symbolic: it reinvests in communities while preserving existing secure infrastructure.
Fourth, this reform strengthens administrative dignity.
For people experiencing homelessness, repeatedly “proving who you are” can be retraumatising. A secure, trusted place to safeguard documents provides stability, not just bureaucratically, but psychologically.
A Physical ID Bank would ideally operate as more than a storage facility. Co-located support staff could assist with document replacement, certification, and navigation of systems administered by Services Australia. Access would be free for low-income users, governed by strict privacy safeguards, and designed through consultation with lived experience communities to avoid surveillance or exclusion risks.
This is not a silver bullet for homelessness. It will not replace the urgent need for investment in social housing. However, it addresses a structural gap that is routinely overlooked.
Housing First models emphasise the stabilising power of housing. Identity stability deserves similar recognition. When documents are secure, pathways to housing, income, and healthcare become more reliable.
In a policy environment dominated by large-scale funding debates, this proposal is modest, practical and scalable. A pilot program in one or two regional towns could test feasibility, cost-effectiveness and user outcomes.
The question is not whether identity matters. It clearly does.
The question is whether Australia is prepared to treat identity security as part of the infrastructure that enables people to exit homelessness and remain out of it.
Thumbnail image “paperwork 2” by isaacbowen is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.