Hi, I’m Omine, and I’m fundraising for a friend who’s been dealt a hand of cards that are making it tough for her to survive. A 29-year-old disabled trans woman, former foster youth, cat mom, aspiring computer programmer, video game and graphic designer currently unemployed, my friend needs community support to regain a roof over her head in the Bay Area.

Being a low-income trans woman living in an expensive urban rental market, my friend has relied on roommate and sublet rentals, where despite a concerted effort to find safe permanent housing and maintain good standing as a roommate and tenant, she has been repeatedly kicked out for being trans and autistic and has been turned down for having a cat, even though her cat is registered as an emotional support animal. She also had to leave a sublet after being threatened with sexual assault by her roommate. At a time when anti-trans bigotry in this country is at an all-time high, my friend has been the target of death threats and online harassment simply for being trans. These events have seriously impacted her mental health and overall well-being.

Given the Bay Area’s notoriously unaffordable rents, my friend needs to raise funds to cover rent, deposit, utility bills, cat food, and other necessities. Please donate and spread the word!

My friend’s struggles mirror those of other trans Californians. According to the Transgender Law Center’s survey of trans people in California, one in five trans people indicated that they have been homeless at some point since first identifying as transgender. According to Our Trans Home SF, trans people in San Francisco are 18 times more likely to experience homelessness than the general population.

Nor are homeless or DV shelters a safe option. Trans people frequently face discrimination within the shelter system. TLC’s survey showed that 31% of unhoused trans people who have tried to stay at shelters report that they have been denied access to a shelter, 15% of those seeking shelter were thrown out when shelter staff found out they were trans, almost half were harassed by other shelter residents, and one in three was harassed by staff. Some residents were actually assaulted by other residents and staff. Ultimately one in three trans people who stayed in shelters decided to leave the shelter system due to poor treatment and unsafe conditions.

Photo: “Community Is Resistance”, lino block print by Sturgeon Amlaw. https://www.etsy.com/shop/SturgeonsDesigns

Sources: Women’s Foundation California & San Francisco Human Rights Commission, Elevating the Voices of Survivors of Gender-Based Violence in Housing https://hsh.sfgov.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/SPI-LHCB.pdf

Hartzell, E., Frazer, M. S., Wertz, K. and Davis, M. (2009). The State of Transgender California: Results from the 2008 California Transgender Economic Health Survey. Transgender Law Center: San Francisco, CA. https://transgenderlawcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/95219573-The-State-of-Transgender-California.pdf