New Policy For Transgender Homeless
February 6, 2006
After years of negotiations with QEJ and other organizations, on
February 3rd, the New York City Department of Homeless Services (DHS)
formally announced a new policy that will allow homeless transgender
individuals to determine their placement in the city’s homeless shelter
system.
The new policy will allow transgender homeless individuals to specify
whether they prefer to be housed in women’s or men’s shelters.
Previously, they were mandated into facilities based on their biological
sex. In accordance with DHS’s new commitment to “a policy of respect
for all shelter clients”, shelter staff will be obligated to address
transgender individuals with their preferred “names, titles, pronouns,
and other terms appropriate to their gender identity.” The new policy
will begin as a pilot program at six homeless shelters across the city.
“No one, regardless of whether they are homeless, should be denied their
basic dignity, their gender, least of all within our city’s shelters,”
said Queers for Economic Justice (QEJ) shelter organizer Jay Toole.
“With the inauguration of DHS’s ground-breaking new policy, we move one
step closer to ensuring the safety and well-being of all New Yorkers
regardless of class or gender identity.”
In the city’s shelters, transgender individuals are at high risk of
verbal, physical, and sexual harassment and abuse, including rape.
Transgender women in particular report being threatened with such
extreme violence in men’s facilities that many opt not to utilize the
shelter system at all, feeling safer instead remaining on the streets.
This policy change represents the culmination of a long negotiation
between DHS and LGBT community organizations. Toole began coordinating
meetings more than three years ago between DHS, QEJ, the Sylvia Rivera
Law Project, and the Gender Identity Project of the LGBT Community
Center. The organizations worked to educate DHS about the experiences
of transgender and gender nonconforming people in the shelter system, as
well as to urge DHS to adopt a written policy allowing such individuals
to determine their own placement within the system. QEJ and fellow
advocates are now working to ensure that the new regulations mandate
transgender-sensitivity training for shelter staff and that the trainers
themselves be either transgender or advocates from transgender
communities.
“The respect and protection of transgender shelter residents will only
happen if shelter staff receive the training they need,” said Toole.
“DHS must now enlist transgender communities and advocacy organizations
in this training to ensure that shelters truly become safe, welcoming
and respectful of homeless transgender people.”
This policy, which was just made available to the public, represents the
culmination of a long negotiation process between QEJ and DHS and a
critical provision that brings us one step closer to ensuring the safety
of all shelter residents regardless of our sexual or gender identities.
The new policy will begin, as a pilot program, at six homeless shelters
across the City.
QEJ expresses its gratitude to the Gender Identity Project and Sylvia
Rivera Law Project for their partnership on this issue, and also to the
many organizations which have helped our three organizations make this
new policy a reality, especially , but also including: Lambda Legal
Defense and Education Fund, the New York County Lawyers' Association
Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Issues, the
Coalition for the Homeless (CFTH), and the New York Transgender Rights
Organization (NYTRO), as well as the many members of the Queer Economic
Justice Network, coordinated by QEJ, which have provided invaluable
support and assistance.