Housing

• Author: Ally Windsor Howell
• Profession: Former practicing lawyer from Alabama
• Pages: 45-48

A recent survey of more than 6,000 transgender persons conducted by

the National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay and

Lesbian Task Force indicated signicant levels of housing instability for

transgender people. Twenty-six percent of respondents reported having to

 nd different places to sleep for short periods of time due to bias. Eleven

percent of respondents reported having been evicted due to bias, and 19

percent reported becoming homeless due to bias.1

As with violence against transgender persons, housing discrimination

against transgender persons is pervasive. A study conducted between 1996

and 1997 found that 37 percent of transgender individuals surveyed had

experienced employment discrimination.2 In 2009, a National Transgen-

dered Discrimination Survey found:

• High rates of poverty: Fifteen percent (15%) of transgender people in

the sample lived on $10,000 per year or less—double the rate of the

general population.

1. The rule referenced effect 3/15/12. See 77 Fed. Reg. 5662 (February 3, 2012).

2. Emilia L. Lombardi, Riki Anne Wilchins, Dana Priesing, and Diana Malouf, Gender

Violence: Transgendered Experiences with Violence and Discrimination, 42 J.  H-

 89 (2001).

45

Housing

CHAPTER 4

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