For our June GMM, we learned about crisis care options in King County (including DESC’s Mobile Rapid Response Crisis Team), Washington’s summer EBT program (SUN Bucks), and talked about federal impacts on our local system of housing and care.
King County Crisis Care
Washington’s SUN Bucks program
Time to Take Action
Protect HUD’s Equal Access Rule
The U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) has proposed a rule change would remove protections for people to access shelter, housing and services that best fit their gender identity, instead making those resources contingent on matching biological sex. That would further marginalize trans, intersex, and nonbinary people who are already at extremely high risk of homelessness and dangerous situations while they are homeless.
Leave a comment today in opposition to this rule change. Comments are due at 11:59 p.m. on Monday, June 29. Sample comment below:
I strongly oppose the proposed changes to the Equal Access Rule issued by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). This proposal would remove critical protections that ensure fair and equal access to housing and services for transgender, nonbinary, and intersex people. By stopping people from choosing services that align with their gender identity, forcing them into programs and services that do not meet their needs, and allowing providers to require proof of a person’s biological sex, this rule opens the door to discrimination, denial of services, and dangerous conditions for people seeking HUD-funded shelter, housing, and services.
According to data from the National Alliance to End Homelessness, transgender people are more likely to be unsheltered than their cisgender peers, and those who are unsheltered have worse health and experience more dangerous conditions than those who are sheltered. More data is available at https://endhomelessness.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Trans-Homelessness-Brief-July-2020.pdf.
Instead of discriminating against trans, nonbinary and intersex people experiencing homelessness, HUD should maintain protections for people to choose services that best fit their identity and meet their needs, and invest in programs that truly meet the needs of queer and trans people experiencing homelessness.
Join our next General Membership Meeting
Our next General Membership Meeting is Thursday, July 16 from 9-10:30 a.m. over Zoom. Register here.