QEJ celebrates important victory for transgender homeless shelter residents

QEJ celebrates important victory for transgender homeless shelter residents

QEJ AND ALLIES ACHIEVE HISTORIC VICTORY IN CHANGING DISCRIMINATORY POLICY AT NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF HOMELESS SERVICES

New Policy Prioritizes Safety and Dignity For Transgender Homeless Shelter Residents
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).