The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) fall 2019 regulatory agenda revealed that the agency is planning to essentially eliminate critical nondiscrimination protections for transgender people seeking safe shelter. This is despite the fact that HUD Secretary Ben Carson assured Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-VA) during a congressional hearing that such protections would remain in place. Transgender people face persistent social, cultural, and economic barriers due to discrimination which lead to high rates of homelessness, including higher rates of unemployment; vulnerability to eviction because of their gender identity; family rejection; and interpersonal violence. In the general population, the lifetime rate of homelessness is around 4 in every 100people. According to the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey, however, nearly 1 in 3 transgender respondents experienced homelessness at some point in their lives. Policies that prohibit discrimination based on gender identity such as HUD’s 2016 Equal Access Rule are necessary to ensure safe and equal access to shelters for people in need. HUD’s latest proposal would unnecessarily erode these strong protections, causing confusion for providers and putting transgender people, nonbinary people, and others at risk.
Proposed revisions to the Equal Access Rule would undermine protections for transgender people
Recognizing the need for clear protections against discrimination in housing, HUD promulgated a rule in 2012 to ensure that all HUD-assisted or -insured housing programs are open to all eligible individuals and families regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital status. In 2016, HUD issued a rule to clarify that gender identity nondiscrimination includes equal access to sex-segregated shelters. The rule provides crucial support for transgender people who are unstably housed, chronically homeless, and/or seeking emergency shelter by ensuring equal treatment.
In its latest attack on transgender people, the Trump administration is proposing to remove the existing clear and explicit nondiscrimination protections for transgender people seeking shelter. This proposal would transform the Equal Access Rule’s strong legal protections into unenforceable guidance by allowing shelter providers to create their own policies for access to single-sex or sex-segregated facilities. This radical change could come with no potentially enforceable requirement other than stating that the policies are consistent with the organization’s overall policy as well as local and state law.