Intersection with Race and Class

Trans Homelessness and the HUD regulation

It is no new news in the world of the wider LGBTQ community that poverty plays a crucial role in their institutionalized discrimination. The United States’ Housing and Urban Development (HUD) department, which regulates (among many other things) homeless shelters, has policy since 2012 stating that access to gender-based resources must follow gender identity, not perceived gender nor biological sex (Jan). However, former HUD secretary Ben Carson, part of the Trump administration, did not enforce this rule, and proposed for it to be repealed. This brings us to the 2020 statistic that 63% of homeless trans people do not have access to shelters, and that trans homelessness has had an 88% increase since 2016 (Santos et al.).

Trans POC and Housing Discrimination

Trans people of color not only face disproportionate levels of violence, but their marginalization as POC often denies them access to the resources needed to live safely and openly as a trans person. The triple combination of sexism, transphobia, and racism is what makes rate of violence against trans women of color one of the most staggeringly extreme in the United States (Martinez and Law). In addition to this, however, is the intersectional issue of living situations. Issues of housing access, or lack thereof, among POC means turn into a severe issue for trans people. Trans POC are less likely to be able to move to more trans-friendly neighborhoods than their white counterparts (Martinez and Law). These issues stem from the not just the layering of race, class, and transness but also their interweaving.

Works Cited

Jan, Tracy. “Biden Administration Withdraws Trump-Era Proposal to Allow Homeless Shelters to Discriminate against Transgender People.” Washington Post, 2021. www.washingtonpost.com, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/04/22/transgender-homeless-shelters-biden-trump/.

Martinez, Gina, and Tara Law. “Two Recent Murders of Black Trans Women in Texas Reveal a Nationwide Crisis, Advocates Say.” Time, 2017, https://time.com/5601227/two-black-trans-women-murders-in-dallas-anti-trans-violence/.

Santos, Theo, et al. “The Trump Administration’s Latest Attack on Transgender People Facing Homelessness.” Center for American Progress, 2020, https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/lgbtq-rights/reports/2020/09/03/490004/trump-administrations-latest-attack-transgender-people-facing-homelessness/.