A big part of the theory behind the American Rescue Plan, with its $1,400 checks and other provisions, is to help those most in need of help. But a catch-22 is that it’s proven quite a challenge to distribute the checks to those who are homeless.

According to a New York Times analysis published earlier this month, there are several practical reasons why distribution to the homeless has been difficult. Distributing the checks requires either sending them to a physical address or sending them to a bank account.

The homeless, by definition, do not have the former, and many also lack the latter, and also often don’t have driver's licenses or other forms of identification. Unhoused people are also much less likely to have easy access to phones or computers, and with them, the tools many Americans have been using to make sure their check is going to the right place. And much of the amounts of the stimulus are geared towards what the person made according to their last tax return, and many homeless people haven’t regularly filed taxes. One homeless man told the Times that he once went to H&R Block in an attempt to pay taxes, but when he told them he was homeless, they said they couldn’t help him.

The Times also interviewed several other homeless people, many of whom were unaware that they were eligible for the stimulus checks.

“There’s this great intention to lift people out of poverty more and give them support, and all of that’s wonderful,” said Beth Hofmeister, a lawyer for the Legal Aid Society’s Homeless Rights Project, told the Times. “But the way people have to access it doesn’t really fit with how most really low-income people are interacting with the government.”

Another man interviewed in the article said he was working in 2020 and even received the first stimulus payment from the CARES Act. But after losing his job, he closed his bank account, because they were charging him for having a low balance.

Another homeless person said that he’s been approached by people who work in finance who offered to help get them their stimulus-for a commission of “several hundred dollars.”

The Times also said that the desperately poor are likely to immediately spend money on goods that stimulate the economy, as opposed to socking the money away. Recent surveys have shown that more stimulus check money was spent on bill-paying than on any other expenditure.

New York’s Department of Social Services told the Times that they are working to help New Yorkers, including the homeless, to ultimately receive their stimulus checks.

 Stephen Silver, a technology writer for The National Interest, is a journalist, essayist, and film critic, who is also a contributor to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philly Voice, Philadelphia Weekly, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Living Life Fearless, Backstage magazine, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.