The Framework for an Equitable COVID-19 Homelessness Response

Priorities from Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Queer (LGBQ)/Trans* People

About

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to unfold, old patterns are reasserting themselves with historically marginalized communities being left out of the planning and response process. These patterns have resulted in predictable gaps in the pandemic response that have left our most marginalized neighbors at unacceptable risk. There is a clear need for further guidance to local jurisdictions who are planning for the response and recovery of the pandemic, in order to ensure that the priorities of historically marginalized communities are centered in the response. 

The National Working Group on Historically Marginalized Communities  

The National Innovation Service (NIS) Center for Housing Justice team, along with other national leaders, started by creating a national working group on historically marginalized communities. The working group brings together a small group of national and local policy experts and advocates alongside direct service providers and people serving the communities most impacted by the pandemic. It includes representatives from mid-sized cities, rural areas, and denser cities. 

Listening Sessions

Population Specific Briefs 

After conducting the listening sessions, the NIS Center for Housing Justice created population-specific briefs to summarize the ideas of each of the ten communities and offer suggested actions that local jurisdictions can take in response to the concerns and priorities raised by people who are being marginalized. This document focuses on the concerns and priorities of LGBQ/Trans* community members participating in the listening sessions. Two listening sessions were conducted with this group, one specifically recruiting Trans* community members and another open to the Queer community at large. The brief combines the group for the following reasons: the listening session specifically for Trans* community members had low attendance; the LGBQ listening session members were not specifically asked their gender identity; and there were overlapping themes across the two listening sessions. Throughout the document there is still often a separation of themes that came directly from the participants identifying as Trans* and those that came from participants in the LGBQ session to respect the unique needs and priorities of the Trans* community members participating. 

The brief is organized around 4 categories:

1. Space

2. Stuff

3. Staff

4. Systems

The four categories are based off of Dr. Paul Farmer’s Space, Stuff, Staff, and Systems Framework, a regular theme for Farmer across his work to address global health crises. These four categories are used in this brief to identify and organize essential elements within what people are experiencing and how best to respond to these experiences. You can read more about his framework here.

Under each of the 4 categories there are two sections:

1. What we heard

2. What we should do

The what we heard section summarizes the direct response of LGBQ/Trans* listening session participants. The what we should do section offers up suggested actions from the NIS Center for Housing Justice that local jurisdictions can take in response to the concerns and priorities raised by LGBQ/Trans* community members in the listening session.

To download an interactive pdf of the information below, click here.

Space

• Housing prices are too high, especially in places that offer safety and services to LGBQ people. LGBQ participants all agreed that the primary contributor to homelessness was lack of available affordable housing in the areas they lived. They also explained that they were often forced to live in some of the highest price housing markets because of safety issues in more affordable places and/or lack of access to needed health care services, such as HIV treatment services, in rural areas. One participant described having to drive two hours each way to receive medications in a rural area which forced him to a higher market city, where he eventually experienced homelessness.

• Protect tenants rights, so that people are not forced from their housing. People spoke about landlords raising rent without notice, and not feeling that there was any way for their rights as a tenant to be protected. People felt that they experienced harassment that was a direct result of being Trans*.

• Develop affordable housing in the most impacted communities and targeted to those most impacted by structural inequity. People experiencing homelessness and leaders in the field agree: housing fixes homelessness.Communities should use CDBG-CV dollars to invest in neighborhoods with high numbers of vacant houses or housing below code in order to create additional housing options for people experiencing homelessness and ESG-CV dollars to target rental assistance to members of marginalized communities to be used in the communities being revitalized and in any neighborhood of their choice. Simultaneously communities should end the decades-long practice of divesting in operating funds. Include long-term operating fund/reinvestment clauses in any new development occurring alongside CDBG-CV dollars. These investments would also allow communities to begin to think about alternative housing development and sustainability models and structures including affordable housing that is fully owned and operated by individuals and housing collectives in the community,  removing private landlords from the engagement.

• Extend eviction moratoriums and enact rent freezes till the end of the pandemic. The most effective eviction prevention strategies available are to extend legislation or emergency declarations that create eviction moratoriums. Additionally, jurisdictions should actively look into rent freezes as the country continues to slide into an economic downturn and landlords try to raise rents to make up for revenue loss. This should be paired with mortgage relief to owners of affordable housing buildings, including naturally affordable housing, and targeted rental assistance to ensure that affordable housing units are not lost during the pandemic and ongoing economic crisis.

Stuff

• Maintaining access to healthcare, medication, and basic services is crucial, during the pandemic and beyond. Access to critical health care services is crucial to obtaining and retaining housing. LGBQ/Trans* people described the lack of food support and substance abuse services during the time of the pandemic, leading to relapse, as well as the need to migrate to cities due to lack of access to medications.  These gaps in services can lead to further experiences of homelessness and serious health issues. The pandemic has increased these gaps in access to services due to loss of income, health insurance, social connectivity, and loss of life in the community.

• Support people by providing food support, especially during the pandemic. Accessing food for Trans* people experiencing homelessness was difficult before the pandemic due to fear on entering spaces that offer food access and harassment and discrimination by service providers offering food benefits and food banks. Trans* people spoke of being denied access to food from church pantries, government-run programs and food banks.

• Fund and support LGBQ/Trans* led health organizations and those that employ LGBQ practitioners. A lack of access to affordable health care is directly connected to experiences of homelessness, particularly for marginalized communities. LBGQ/Trans* individuals often have difficulty accessing healthcare, particularly in rural communities, due to pervasive homophobia within the health care system. As communities look at CARES Act spending they should consider investments in health resources that are targeted towards historically marginalized communities experiencing homelessness. For LGBQ/Trans* individuals, these resources should assist in obtaining affirming health care services, acquiring specialized medications when needed, and accessing remote health services during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

• Ensure safe access to food and other critical human needs. Access to basic human services for Trans* people is often denied based on their identity. During the time of COVID one of those basic needs often denied is access to food. As Cares Act dollars are used to develop new service delivery models, communities must address the unique challenges faced by Trans* people and ensure safe access to food and other basic needs, this may include delivering groceries, cash support for groceries, and supporting safe transportation options to affirming food assistance centers.

Staff

• Police are not trained to respond to the needs of people experiencing homelessness. Police officers lack training in working with people with a substance abuse disorder or mental health issues, people engaging in sex work, and with marginalized identities such as LGBQ people. Participants called for trained professionals that were highly compensated to meet the needs of people experiencing homelessness.  

• Protect people experiencing homelessness from police violence. Police often disturb people sleeping outside and on trains in the middle of the night, often forcing them to be transported to a shelter that is already full or without adequate sleeping arrangements. This process is dehumanizing, not only because it treats people like cattle, but also because the police officers harass, belittle and bully trans* people while doing so. Trans* people expressed mistrust for police and a desire for them to be out of any community-facing work, to instead be handled by people with the ability to empathize and understand the struggle of living outside. 

• Remove policing from the homelessness system. People experiencing homelessness have consistently reported extremely high levels of unhelpful police engagement; this can be compounded by identifying as LGBQ/Trans* and heightened even more when also Black, Indigenous, or a non-Black Person of Color.  As communities plan their CARES Act expenditures it’s clear that these dollars should not be used to fund policing activities--inclusive of ‘outreach’ teams that include police. Additionally, funds should be actively divested from policing and moved over to the creation of housing and community supports.

Systems

• Eliminate the shelter system. Trans* people spoke about the high-cost of shelters, at the expense of providing housing. People spoke of not understanding why the government would pay for people to stay in shelter for a month at a cost of what it would take to provide housing for a year. For these reasons, they spoke of eliminating the shelter system. Until the shelter system is eliminated, trans* people demanded assurance that trans* people are safe in shelter and have equal access to resources like food.

• Avoiding the police is a strategy for survival for LGBQ/Trans* people experiencing homelessness. Avoiding interactions with police is connected to the survival of LGBQ people experiencing homelessness. LGBQ people described harassment and unlawful arrests, especially for those that were also Black and Latinx. One participant  described avoiding the police even when witnessing a crime because of fear of harassment or police violence.

• Protect Trans* people from violence. Trans* people experience victimization and violence in many activities of daily life-- just walking down the street or going to unfamiliar neighborhoods or even cities, and it leads to constantly having to make difficult decisions to stay safe. This may mean deciding not to go out to get food, or avoiding services because of fear of harassment from providers and police. Trans people expressed the ways that this victimization and constant vigilance is compounded for Black and Brown Trans* people. 

• Homophobic structural violence leads to isolation, anxiety, and depression. Homophobia throughout the homeless response system and society at large leads to many LGBQ people feeling isolated, unable to express their whole selves, leading to anxiety and depression. The LGBQ community has found solace by being in community together and the pandemic and social distancing is a serious barrier to being in community and fighting off the isolation. People described stigma and harassment around living openly as HIV-positive or queer, fearing to express themselves through art or other means without retaliation from neighbors or landlords. People expressed an increase in isolation during the pandemic that was leading to depression and the needs for medication.  

• Eliminate stigma and erasure of trans* people. Trans* people are killed and subjected to violence at a higher rate due to transphobic stigmatization. Also, Trans* people are sometimes kicked out of their homes by their family as a result of their family members not understanding things like transitioning and gender pronouns. This can affect Trans* people’s mental health as well because of societal pressures and stigmatization. The lack of mentorship by other Trans* folks is also hard for people and it can be limiting with respect to income, dreams, and employment goals.

• Dedicate resources to LGBQ/Trans* youth involved in the child welfare system to prevent homelessness. LGBQ/Trans* youth involved in the child welfare system are at  higher risk of homelessness, a solvable social issue with dedicated resources and strategies. People described the needs for targeted resources to LGBQ/Trans* youth transitioning to adulthood that assist with housing, employment, and community building.

• Implement a crisis response that ends the use of large congregate shelters and creates dignity- based, safe, temporary crisis options as a bridge to long-term housing. Current approaches to shelter that utilize large congregate settings are often actively harming people. Rather than complex and harmful shelter programs, communities should begin to transition their resources to creating an array of dignity-based, safe , temporary crisis options. CARES Act funds should be used to abolish large congregate shelters and create systems that house people rather than simply warehouse them. This will require long-term planning to shift funding away from large congregate shelters and toward:

• hotel/motel/SRO options for temporary use,

• The re-shaping of transitional housing stock to create more dignity based crisis options.

• targeted prevention and diversions services, including financial support to kinship networks and direct cash transfers to individuals and families, that leads to less dependence on formal crisis options and 

• more immediate and direct access to long term housing through rental assistance and the development of affordable housing prioritized for marginalized communities. 

• The work of many cities, counties, and states to move people into non-congregate temporary crisis settings during COVID-19 serves as a proof point that it is possible to re-imagine the crisis response to homelessness and offer safe temporary options that do not depend on congregate shelters.  Communities need to continue and improve upon these efforts with CARES Act funds in order to fully realize a system with no large congregate shelters and adequate safe, temporary, crisis options for anyone in need of shelter in the community.

• Utilize Cares Act funds and divestment from police to fund and support Trans*/ LGBQ and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color led organizations. Trans* and LGBQ community members experience discrimination and violence at much higher rates due to systemic transphobia and homophobia. This discrimination is seen across the homeless response system and all the human services systems meant to assist Trans* and LGBQ community members. Community support for Trans* and LGBQ people experiencing homelessness that are funded through Cares Act and through divesting of policing, should be led by Trans* and LGBQ organizations, particularly those that are operated by BIPOC, that can offer affirming and empowering services. In many communities this will mean targeted recruitment and ongoing support for new community-based organizations to apply for and operate federal funds. This may also include new partnership with existing federal grantees to ensure better representation among providers. 

• Move decision-making power to people most impacted by homelessness, particularly those from marginalized communities. Pervasive homophobia across society and embedded in all service systems often leads to barriers in accessing housing and employment opportunities, increased rates of mental health and substance abuse issues, and higher instances of victimization. As communities begin to reimagine housing and service structures through the deployment of CARES Act funds, they must engage LGBQ/Trans* people who have experienced homelessness in the design, implementation,  and ongoing monitoring of housing and service delivery models, with the end goal of moving decision-making power to those most impacted. 

• Target flexible eviction prevention, including kinship supports and cash transfers to those at the highest risk of homelessness. Homeless prevention programs often exacerbate inequality within the system because they are structured to give eviction prevention funds on a first come, first served basis instead of targeting more flexible prevention services to those most at-risk of homelessness. As communities create plans for CARES Act prevention funds they should target LGBQ/Trans* individuals by assessing for factors that disproportionately lead to their homelessness, such as victimization, foster care and justice histories, and higher experiences of mental health and substance abuse. The funds should also be structured to offer flexible support and financial assistance to kinship networks, such as the ballroom community, that can safely house LGBQ/Trans* individuals with financial assistance. This assistance should be accessible at the same level of financial support as available to traditional families. As folks navigate the economic fallout from the pandemic kinship and chosen family relationships will be more important than ever. This builds on the network impoverishment finding that Olivet, Dones, Richard et al. described in previous writing. Communities are often willing to take care of themselves and each other but lack the financial resources to do so. Simple cash transfers and other low barrier financial supports should be widely implemented.

Additional Briefs

• Introduction

  • Priorities from Asian Americans

  • Priorities from Black People

  • Priorities from Latinx People

  • Priorities from Native-Indigenous People

  • Priorities from Pacific Islanders 

  • Priorities from People with Incarceration Histories

  • Priorities from People Involved with Public Systems

  • Priorities from People Living with Disabilities 

• Top Priorities and Actions Across Communities

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities • National Alliance to End Homelessness 

National Innovation Service • National Healthcare for the Homeless Council 

National Low Income Housing Coalition • Urban Institute 

Barbara Poppe and associates • Matthew Doherty Consulting