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Out Boulder County partners with homeless shelters to affirm transgender support

Given the increased rate of homelessness, discrimination, and mistreatment that transgender people experience nationally, Out Boulder County and the city of Boulder Human Relations Commission asked local shelters to affirm their support of the transgender community.
Community Submission

NEWS RELEASE
OUT BOULDER COUNTY
CITY OF BOULDER HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION
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Out Boulder County and the city of Boulder Human Relations Commission have partnered with Boulder County homeless shelters and transitional housing to affirm support of transgender community members. Transgender people experience homelessness at a disproportionate rate compared to cisgender people. ("Transgender" refers to people who do not identify with the gender they were assigned at birth; the term "cisgender" refers to people who are not transgender).

According to the National Center for Transgender Equality’s 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey:

  • nearly one-third of transgender respondents have experienced homelessness at some point in their lives
  • 1 in 8 experienced homelessness in the previous year because of being transgender
  • nearly one-quarter experienced some form of housing discrimination in the previous year, such as being evicted or denied housing because of being transgender
  • more than one-quarter of respondents who were homeless in the past year avoided staying in homeless shelters because they feared they would be mistreated as a transgender person
  • 6% were denied access to a shelter, including 4% who were denied access due to being transgender
  • 9% were thrown out of a shelter once staff found out that they were transgender and 44% decided to leave the shelter because of poor treatment or unsafe conditions

Given the increased rate of homelessness, discrimination, and mistreatment that transgender people experience nationally, Out Boulder County and the city of Boulder Human Relations Commission asked local shelters to affirm their support of the transgender community by sharing their commitment to:

1. House transgender people based on their gender identity; and
2. Not require invasive questioning or medical documentation related to their sex or gender

This statement is especially important now when U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development is considering a rule that would roll back these protections that were established in 2012 and further clarified in 2016 (“Equal Access in Accordance with an Individual's Gender Identity in Community Planning and Development Programs” (2016 Rule)), and during a global pandemic.

Out Boulder County, the city of Boulder Human Relations Commission, and the local homelessness organizations offering life-saving services affirm the dignity of transgender community members and their right to access services that best align with their sense of self. Shelter partners include: Mother House (The Lodge), Safehouse Progressive Alliance for Nonviolence, Attention Homes, Boulder Shelter for the Homeless, Bridge House, HOPE and The Inn Between.

Read the Agency Commitment statement here. 

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