Yesterday I started this series on the Blueprint for Equality with the Introduction and Part 1, which concerned economic opportunity.
Interest was underwhelming. But the few readers there were encouraged me to plug away at the series. Since I had already begun Part 2, I went ahead and finished it.
Part 2 concerns housing and homelessness, which are an important part of anyone's life but can be exceptionally tenuous for transpeople.
HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan spoke at the NCTE award ceremony in November in Washington, DC becoming the first sitting cabinet secretary to address any transgender organization.
12. Congress should pass the Housing Opportunities Made Equal (HOME) Act, which would explicitly prohibit discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation in housing and lending.
The HOME Act, which would amend the Fair Housing Act, was referred to the House Judiciary Committee on September 22 of last year and it is still sitting there. The Fair Housing Act would be amended to add "sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, source of income" to the list of classes which cannot be discriminated against.
13. Congress should fully fund implementation of the Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness, including expanding the nation’s supply of affordable housing.
That strategic plan is called Opening Doors. I have to admit I'd be vastly happier with this plan if mention of transpeople were not restricted to the phrase "gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender". While I agree wholeheartedly that homelessness is a problem for everyone, this document does not encourage me to believe that the federal government has any knowledge about the special circumstances that transpeople may encounter when homeless.
14. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) should, through rule making or interpretive guidance, make clear that refusal by a HUD-funded housing provider to provide access to gender-specific temporary housing consistent with a person’s gender identity because the person is transgender constitutes unlawful discrimination.
HUD has a new rule which went into effect in early March of this year.
If you're denying HUD housing to people on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, actual or perceived, you're discriminating. You're breaking the law and you will be held accountable. That's what equal access means. And that's what this rule is going to do.
--Shaun Donovan
But federal officials also cautioned the rule won't have the full force of the law until Congress adds LGBT anti-discrimination protections to the Fair Housing Act under Title VIII.
See #12.
It is also the case that temporary housing facilities which may be needed in emergency situations are not covered by that rule.
Unfortunately, transgender people facing homelessness also face discrimination from agencies that should be helping them, with nearly one in three (29%) reporting being turned away from a shelter due to their transgender status. While leading experts on homelessness recommend providing emergency housing consistent with a person’s gender identity, 42% of trans people facing homelessness have been forced to stay in a shelter living as the wrong gender.
Rather than not discriminate in this manner, homeless shelters are merely required to abide by state and local nondiscrimination statues. That leaves many homeless transpeople out in the cold, as it were.
15. The Departments of Housing and Urban Development and Health and Human Services should implement a unified homeless data collection system that includes data on gender identity and sexual orientation.
Documentation is necessary or people will choose to believe there is no problem…like the 90% of voters who believe workplace discrimination against us is already prohibited by law.
16. The Departments of Housing and Urban Development and Health and Human Services should publish and promote best practices for supporting homeless transgender youth.
In 2010 the estimate was that there were 320,000 to 400,000 gay and transgender youth. The average age of such youth in New York was 14.4 and they had, on average, been homeless since they were 13.5.
17. Congress should appropriate funds to conduct the Prevalence and Incidence Study of runaway and homeless youth mandated by the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act of 2008.
The prevalence of homeless youth in the United States is largely unknown. To address this paucity of data about the number of homeless youth, when Congress reauthorized the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act in 2008, included was Section 345: Periodic Estimate of Incidence and Prevalence of Youth Homelessness. In this age of research and evidenced-based practice to improve and eradicate social issues in the United States, an incidence and prevalence study of this vulnerable population is timely and needed.
--National Alliance to End Homelessness
Funding the study would cost an estimated $3 million. Apparently that has been too much to spare.
To get a better grip on the problem, there is this: