Proposed Change to HUD Equal Access Rule
Recently the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), proposed a concerning rule about shelter access for transgender and gender nonconforming individuals. This rule would remove critical protections meant to ensure the safety of any transgender or gender nonconforming person in need of HUD funded programs - especially emergency shelters.
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About the proposed rule:
You can read about the rule directly from HUD here. In summary, this rule would allow HUD funded shelter programs to deny transgender and gender nonconforming individuals access to single-sex shelters based on the sex they were assigned at birth. This proposed rule would roll back protections from a 2016 addition to the 2012 Equal Access Rule that protected transgender people seeking emergency shelter in homeless and domestic violence shelters. NCCEH believes that this goes against one of HUD’s expressed goals to “build inclusive and sustainable communities free from discrimination.”
 
As our friends at Equality NC remind us: “According to the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey, 30% of transgender respondents in North Carolina have experienced homelessness at some point in their lives, and 15% of North Carolina respondents who experienced homelessness in the past year avoided staying in a shelter because they feared being mistreated as a transgender person. The announced rule makes that fear more likely to be a harmful reality for many transgender people.”
At NCCEH, we join with many other organizations, including the National Alliance to End Homelessness and True Colors United, in condemning this proposed rule. NCCEH will continue to advocate for the inclusion of marginalized populations in all areas of our work. It is our understanding that the proposed rule would not undermine the ability of a Continuum of Care (CoC) to set its own funding priorities and written standards for grantees. For example, the NC Balance of State CoC has funding priorities and written standards that include a comprehensive non-discrimination policy, including access to shelter based on gender identity.


Take Action:
From July 24-September 22, there is a 60 day comment period where members of the public can share their opinion on this rule and the impact it will have on the safety of transgender and gender non-conforming people. By law, HUD is required to review each comment, respond publicly, and possibly alter their proposal based on feedback. NCCEH will be submitting a comment through this portal and will publish this once submitted. We encourage any concerned individual, agency, or CoC to submit comments as well. A link to the submission portal can be found here .
 
A template of suggested language for comments is linked here .

COVID-19 Impact Survey
United Way of North Carolina (UWNC) just launched a COVID-19 Impact Survey . The impacts of COVID-19 have no doubt been felt by you, your family, and your organization. At community level, United Ways are adjusting their workplan strategies and fundraising efforts to ensure that families have resources to step out of unemployment, meet their basic needs, and determine how to best navigate their future. 
 
United Way is working to identify the economic impact of COVID-19 through the data collected during this survey.
This 10 minute  survey  is now available for every household – in English and Spanish – to complete on or before August 21 .  

They need your help so that the results represent every geographic corner of NC, every population, race and ethnicity, and every category of financial means. Please consider distributing the survey widely to your employees, organizational partners, and other community-level colleagues to help us achieve strong representation in the survey results. If you have any questions please reach out to Julia Van Patter at  jvanpatter@unitedwaync.org.
 
The mission of the North Carolina Coalition to End Homelessness is to end homelessness by creating alliances, encouraging public dialogue, securing resources, and advocating for systemic change. NCCEH works with communities to address root causes of homelessness by developing and implementing data-driven strategies that are focused on permanent housing and appropriate services.
Thank you for all you do to make our community a better place!