From U.S. Housing and Urban Development:
WASHINGTON - Today, the U.S. Housing and Urban Development ( HUD ) announced its proposed "Equal Access in Accordance with an Individual's Gender Identity in Community Planning and Development Programs Rule ( Gender Identity Rule )." The proposed Gender Identity Rule was created after reviewing and monitoring the implementation of HUD's Equal Access to Housing in HUD Programs Regardless of Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity Rule<%3ehttp:/portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/press/press_releases_media_advisories/2012/HUDNo.12-014%3c> ( Equal Access Rule ), which was published in 2012. The Equal Access Rule ensures that housing assisted or insured by HUD is open to all eligible individuals and families without regard to actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity or marital status.
"A person seeking shelter is already in a very vulnerable situation, and they deserve to be treated with dignity when they request our assistance," said HUD Secretary Julian Castro. "This rule takes us one step closer to full acceptance of transgender men and women, and will ensure they receive the proper services that respect their identity."
Based on its evaluation of the Equal Access rule and consultation with LGBT stakeholders, HUD's proposed Gender Identity Rule would require recipients and sub-recipients of assistance from HUD's Office of Community Planning and Development ( CPD ), as well as owners, operators, and managers of shelters, buildings, and facilities with shared sleeping quarters or shared bathing facilities to provide transgender persons and other persons who do not identify with the sex they were assigned at birth with access to programs, benefits, services, and accommodations in accordance with their gender identity.
HUD's 2012 Equal Access Rule provided a limited exception for inquiries about the sex of an individual to determine eligibility for housing provided or to be provided to an individual when the housing is a temporary, emergency shelter that involves the sharing of sleeping areas or bathrooms, or inquiries made for the purpose of determining the number of bedrooms to which a household may be entitled. Upon HUD's review of that policy, the proposed Gender Identity Rule would eliminate the Equal Access Rule's current prohibition on inquiries related to sexual orientation or gender identity, while maintaining the prohibition against discrimination on those bases.
For more information about the proposed Gender Identity Rule, please visit http:/www.hud.gov/lgbt .
This proposed rule will be open for public comment for the next 60 days. Interested persons may submit comments electronically at the link: www.regulations.gov/ .
Comments may also be submitted by mail to the Regulations Divisions, Office of General Counsel, Department of Housing and Urban Development, 451 7th Street SW, Room 10276, Washington, DC 20410.
Since 2010, HUD has taken significant steps to strengthen protections for LGBT individuals and their families, such as adopting the principle that sex stereotyping and gender nonconformity is sex discrimination under the Fair Housing Act, adopting the requirement that applicants for competitive HUD funds must be in compliance with state and local LGBT nondiscrimination laws, releasing a groundbreaking study on same-sex housing discrimination portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD .
From National Center for Transgender Equality:
November 20, 2015….Washington, DC — The Department of Housing and Urban Development has proposed an important rule requiring shelters to treat transgender people according to their gender identity in emergency shelters.
This rule updates HUD's Equal Access Rule from 2012, which prohibits federally-funded housing from discriminating against transgender, as well as lesbian, gay and bisexual, people. The new proposed rule requires sex-specific shelters to house transgender people according to their gender identity rather than their birth sex.
"Transgender people's lives are at risk all over the country today because shelters refuse to house them appropriately," said NCTE Deputy Executive Director Lisa Mottet. "This action by HUD advances a common-sense approach that has worked in many communities for over a decade." In 2003, Mottet co-authored the authoritative best practices guide on making homeless shelters safe for transgender people, entitled "Transitioning Our Shelters," while working at the National LGBTQ Task Force, and in partnership with the National Coalition for the Homeless.
According to the National Transgender Discrimination Survey released in 2011, nearly a third of those who attempted to access homeless shelters were denied access on the basis of their gender identity, and 42% were forced to stay in facilities designated for the wrong gender ( for example, a woman forced to stay in a men's group shelter ). Of those who stayed in a shelter, 22% report being sexually assaulted there and 47% report having to leave a shelter because of harassment or assault. Nineteen percent ( 19% ) of transgender people report experiencing homelessness at some point in their life because they are transgender and 12% report having sex with someone in order to have a place to sleep. All of these statistics are higher for transgender people of color; for example, 33% of black transgender people and 31% of Latina/o transgender people report experiencing sexual assault while staying at a shelter.
"Homelessness and denial of access to safe and appropriate shelter has been and continues to be a significant crisis for transgender people. As the transgender community remembers transgender people who were killed as part of Transgender Day of Remembrance today, November 20, we want people to understand how access to safe shelter is a factor in some of these deaths. We thank Secretary Castro for showing leadership and compassion by doing all in his power to alleviate the life-threatening harms that transgender people are experiencing right now," continued Mottet.
This proposed rule emerges after years of advocacy by the National Center for Transgender Equality for stronger federal protections for transgender people in housing and shelters. NCTE will file formal comments urging HUD to finalize this rule and recommending that the rule be further clarified and simplified to strengthen its protections.
