SAN FRANCISCO—The city of San Francisco has tentatively approved a program to provide identification cards to illegal immigrants, transgender people and other residents who may be unable or unwilling to get a state-issued driver’s license.

The Board of Supervisors, San Francisco’s version of a city council, voted 10-1 to approve the program Nov. 13.

The identification card program was modeled after one launched this summer in New Haven, Conn., and is designed to help residents without IDs to access services and feel safe dealing with police.

Similar programs have been proposed in New York City and Miami, but so far San Francisco is the biggest city to adopt one.

The program is scheduled to go into effect next August.

The cards, available to the city’s 750,000 residents, are intended for undocumented residents who are ineligible for driver’s licenses, senior citizens who no longer drive and transgender people whose driver’s licenses no longer reflect their appearances.