Homelessness and Poverty

Youth experiencing homelessness is
             the largest growing population 

A trans* person is more often then not going to experience homelessness at some point in their life. A study done in California showed 1 in 5 respondents had been homeless since they started to identify as transgender (state of transgender California, 2009). Homelessness has two major causes poverty and lack of affordable housing. While this is true in trans* communities, there are other factors in how a trans* person becomes to experience homelessness, none of these factors are that the individual did not try to get off the streets or that the individual is to blame. Most trans* individuals are hard working, have been in higher education system and are responsible people. The reasons why trans* people experience a high rate of homelessness is because of the discrimination they face, in their home, from their families, while looking for housing, while try to find employment to pay for the housing, but employment will be another blog.

Trans* people end up on the streets because even shelters discriminate. Thirty one percent of trans* people have been denied access in the California area alone (state of transgender California, 2009). When trans* people are actually granted access to shelters they are fearful of being harassed by other residents and even staff. Ultimately most trans* people leave shelters due to poor treatment or unsafe conditions. Conditions that exclude privacy like shower curtains or stalls. The other problem with shelters are the issue of placement, most shelters are segregated by two genders, male and female. Some shelters will only admit a trans* person if they have completed surgery, other shelters will ask the person to conform to your sex and live in that part of the shelter. In some youth shelters where dress codes exist wearing gender non-conforming clothing will get you punished.

It is difficult in the trans* community to get out of poverty, in our socially stratified society the trans* community is at the bottom, lacking political power and social status. It is also very easy to fall into the culture of poverty because of the discrimination the trans* community faces, a subculture that includes a lack of faith or investment in public institutions.

These issues are becoming more visible, organizations like the national center for transgender equality, are putting in systems to educate shelters. Since 2004 trans* people in California are protected from discrimination and harassment in housing. Here in Minnesota we still have some work to do, MN state law says, “Housing discrimination is illegal in Minnesota if based on race, color, religion, national origin, disability, marital status, public assistance status, familial status (having kids), sexual orientation or creed.”

To hear a personal story about trans* homelessness: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReIcQnId7Qw 

State of Transgender California: Economic Health of Transgendered Californians. 2009. Transgender Law Center. Retrieved from http://www.transgenderlawcenter.org/pdf/StateofTransCAFINAL.pdf

* denotes transgender, transsexual and gender non-conforming