TRANS HOUSING ATLANTA INC
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Mission Statement
To provide safe housing and appropriate supportive services to transgender and gender nonconforming (defined as any personal gender identity different or transgressive from the sex assigned at birth) individuals who experience homelessness to facilitate movement to independent living and promote productive employment and reduction of risky behaviors, or who seek intermediate or long-term housing that’s centered on the needs of transgender and gender nonconforming people. To deconstruct the binary nature of emergency housing services in Metro Atlanta
About This Cause
Trans Housing Atlanta Program, Inc. is focused on solving the crisis in the lack of affordable housing and human shelter services for transgender, gender non-binary, and gender non-conforming folks in the Atlanta metro area. We do this in several ways. First, we created and maintain the first local social network site (“Trans Housing Atlanta” on Facebook) exclusively devoted to housing for Trans, non-binary, and gender nonconforming individuals. Since it began, hundreds of individuals either posted space they had available for our members to receive housing or posted a need for housing. We also post information about job fairs and employers who hire trans, non-binary, gender non-conforming folks, including for-profit and non-profit organizations. Second, THAP operates a Housing Case Management and Assistance Program, based on Housing First principles, which seeks to house trans and non-binary folks experiencing homelessness quickly. We then assist our constituency to reach and maintain housing stability. We do this by offering case management services through a part-time Case Manager who seeks to develop a housing stability plan with our constituents that include strategies to seek and obtain employment or access to public or private benefits for which they’re entitled, in addition to housing resources. In order to insure easy access to our program, our Case Manager is available to provide intake and assessment services in person, by telephone or social media. Third, we operate a Community Education Program to reach more trans and gender non-conforming individuals (gnu) with information about their rights to fair housing and their rights as tenants in a landlord/tenant relationship. The aim is to not only provide people the information `they need to avoid homelessness by preserving the housing that they have and making sure that it is safe and habitable, but to also enforce their rights through various grievance and accountability mechanisms available in federal, state, or local laws and ordinances. Finally, we work to make the shelter system in metro Atlanta safer and more responsive to the needs of the trans and gender non-binary population. We advocate within the City of Atlanta's Continuum of Care to ensure that shelters that operate in the City of Atlanta operate in compliance with the local Human Rights Ordinance which outlaws discrimination in housing based upon gender identity, among other categories. We also utilize the Atlanta Human Rights Commission process, set up to enforce the Human Rights Ordinance, to hold shelters accountable who mistreat trans non-binary folks. Most homeless shelter and services in Atlanta are faith-based and operate in a binary manner: you can either go to a men's shelter, or a women's shelter. Transgender and gender non-binary individuals historically face hostility and mistreatment at these facilities. Therefore, we advocate to dismantle the binary nature of shelter and services for people experiencing homelessness in Atlanta. In the spirit of collaborating with local organizations that center Black trans and LGBTQI people in their work that has a housing component, we began a series of discussionsin 2020, our organization, along with Trans(forming), an inter-generational, metro Atlanta membership-based organization led by and for Trans, Intersex, Gender non-conforming and Non-Binary persons, whom were wrongfully assigned female at birth, and Zami/NOBLA, a multi-state organization serving older Black lesbian. Out of these discussions emerged the Metro Atlanta Lesbian Trans Housing Alliance (MALTHA), a multi-racial, multi-generational, sexual and gender minority alliance working to build housing equity. We are currently developing a strategic plan that will guide our efforts to develop additional funding and housing resources for the community. Since 2019, we’ve also collaborated with H.Y.P.E. 2 Empower, another local nonprofit who assists individuals and families affected by HIV/AIDS to live healthy lifestyles. Over the past several years, we’ve provided referrals to and consultation with H.Y.P.E.’s programs that seek to connect LGBTQI people affected by HIV to job training and to train them to become tenant advocated in their communities. Currently, we have an MOU with the that includes providing cross-referrals as well as consultation services on The Figures project to reach out to women of color living with HIV across the gender spectrum impacted by HIV and AIDS to employ their personal stories to influence and shape how those in their digital communities perceive HIV and those living with HIV. THAP assisted in the production of a series of short films to reach out and empower transgender people to protect themselves from HIV infection. The Figures program also has the goal to build and organize advocacy training to foster collective power within transgender women and cisgender women to advocate for better emotional well-being and health.