Safe at Home is an address confidentiality program offered through the Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State and is available to people who have personal safety concerns and who have an actual residential address in Minnesota. 

Safe at Home participants are often survivors of domestic violence, have been victimized by the stalking behavior of another, or have been sexually assaulted. People also enroll because they have safety concerns due to their profession, such as law enforcement professionals. Whatever the reason, a person enrolls in Safe at Home because they have a significant safety concern and have decided that keeping their residential address, school address, or employment address confidential is an appropriate part of their personal safety plan.

When eligible people enroll in Safe at Home, they must submit an application. When Safe at Home receives an application, it must be approved (certified) within two business days, as long as the application contains all of the required information. One requirement is that the applicant must disclose to the Office of the Secretary of State their actual residential address. That information, along with all other participant information, is kept under security and is maintained as private data.

Upon certification, the new Safe at Home participant is assigned a new address and mailed an information packet, which includes a Safe at Home program participation card for each household member listed on the application. The participation card displays the participant's complete Safe at Home address.

Minnesota Statutes Chapter 5B allows a Safe at Home participant to use the newly assigned address for all purposes in the state of Minnesota. All private and public entities must accept the newly assigned address as the participant's actual address of residence, as their school address, and as their address of employment. During interactions with other entities, a Safe at Home participant cannot be required to answer questions about the circumstances regarding his or her participation in the program.

Because the participant then uses their newly assigned Safe at Home address for everything, all of a Safe at Home participant's mail goes to their newly assigned address, which is a post office box in St. Paul managed by the Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State. The participant does not pick up their mail from that post office box. Safe at Home staff pick up the mail and the Safe at Home office forwards all of a participant's First Class Mail to the participant's real residential address. If a participant is using the program effectively, the only mail they receive at their real address is mail sent by the Safe at Home office, because only Safe at Home knows their real address.

Although Safe at Home forwards all of a participant's mail, it does not forward Standard Mail ("junk mail"), or Periodicals (magazines, newspapers, etc.). Safe at Home does not forward packages unless the packages are clearly marked that they are being sent from a government agency or unless they are clearly identifiable pharmaceuticals. This policy is in place for security reasons.

Safe at Home will only disclose a participant's real residential address to a third party in response to a valid court order, or it may disclose it to law enforcement authorities who request a disclosure by utilizing the law enforcement data request procedure, which requires them to make a request through the Duty Officer at the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

The lot number is an important part of a participant's Safe at Home address. 

All Safe at Home participants share the same post office box number. However, each household is assigned its own unique lot number. Sometimes adult participants within the same household are assigned different lot numbers. A participant's Safe at Home address is considered incomplete without their lot number.

The lot number helps the Safe at Home office distinguish mail for sorting purposes. When the lot number is included in the address of a piece of mail being sent to a Safe at Home participant, it helps Safe at Home staff sort mail more efficiently. If mail being sent to a Safe at Home participant does not contain a lot number in the address, there can be no guarantee that the piece of mail will reach the program participant in a timely fashion or even reach the participant at all. This is similar to sending correspondence to a person who lives in a large apartment complex, but not identifying the apartment in which they reside.

No. By law, you are only required to accept the following PO Box address from a Safe at Home Participant:

PO Box 17370        (This is the same for all Safe at Home participants.)
Lot ###               (This is different for each Safe at Home household.)
St. Paul, MN 55117 (The Safe at Home PO Box is only in St. Paul.)

You are not required to accept any other PO Box address or any other alternate address a Safe at Home participant may offer you.

A Safe at Home participant is encouraged to tell others with whom they interact that they are a program participant.

If someone does not disclose that they are a Safe at Home participant, but they give an address of Lot ###, PO Box 17370, Saint Paul, MN when asked for their address, that is also an indication they are a Safe at Home participant. This Saint Paul address is the only post office box address for Safe at Home participants.

Lastly, although they are not required to carry it with them at all times, every participant is issued a Safe at Home program participation card.

Eligibility requirements to join Safe at Home are:

1) A person must reside in Minnesota; and

2) A person must be afraid for their personal safety, or for the safety of their child or ward; and

3) A person cannot be a registered predatory offender, or a predatory offender required to register in any state; and

4) A person must agree to abide by the program requirements.