Atlanta's Largest Homeless Shelter Grapples With Transgender Inclusion

“Remember this is a men’s facility and you must present yourself as male.”

Those 13 words — part of the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless’ “Residents Rights, Responsibilities, Policies & Procedures” — are at the heart of one of the major problems the shelter continues to have with the City of Atlanta in trying to serve the city’s large homeless population.

More and more male-to-female transgender women are seeking shelter at the facility, known as Peachtree-Pine because of its location at 477 Peachtree St. at the intersection of Pine Street. The facility houses an average of 600 men each night. Of that total, approximately 5 percent, or between 20-25 people, are transwomen, said Hillary Brown, AmeriCorps Force caseworker. Brown is working with Ann Monk, also with the AmeriCorps Force, to find a way to make the shelter trans-inclusive.

But in order for the transwomen to be able to stay in the shelter, they must “present as male” — and that means shedding their identity, including name, the clothes they usually wear, even wigs and fake fingernails.

“No other shelter will take transgender people except Peachtree-Pine,” said Akasha, 27, who is going by her birth and legal name, Jason, in order to stay in the shelter. She has been living as a woman since she was 19.

“I have to downgrade who I am or get kicked out for it. I have to hide. It’s really demeaning,” she said.

Akasha has been in the shelter approximately two months and is seeking a job and attending job trainings referred to her through the shelter, she said. She moved to Atlanta recently from Orlando, Fla., “looking to do something better with my life.”

After staying in a hotel for one week, she was unable to pay for the room and was forced to seek space at the shelter, she said. And while she has an uncle and sister who live in Atlanta, she said they refuse to help her because she is transgender.

“No human being should have to live like this,” she said.


Changing policy to be trans-inclusive

Employees with the Task Force are looking to the transgender community for help. At a March 17 meeting with transgender advocates, participants agreed changing the policy requiring clients “must present as male” might be the first step in making the shelter trans-inclusive, while still keeping in line with the City of Atlanta’s zoning policy that the shelter remain male only.

“When we started having trans clients and noticing how hard or impossible it is to place them, either because other shelters are religious-based or they don’t know where to put trans people so they turn them away, we knew we had to do something,” Brown said at the meeting. “Transwomen living in a men’s shelter is unsafe.”

Cole Thaler, transgender rights attorney for Lambda Legal, suggested changing the policy in question to read: “Remember this is a men’s facility, and in compliance with Atlanta city code the shelter does not discriminate based on gender identity.”

“People are confusing sex and gender expression,” said Thaler, who is based in Lambda Legal’s Southern regional office in Atlanta.

In 2000, the city approved a nondiscrimination policy prohibiting “discrimination based on race, color, creed, religion, sex, domestic relationship status, parental status, familial status, sexual orientation, national origin, gender identity, age, or disability.”

Also at the March 17 meeting were Tracee McDaniel, founder of the Juxtaposed Center for Transformation; Cheryl Courtney-Evans, founder of Transgender Individuals Living Their Truth; Destiny Hill of Someone Cares Inc. in Marietta; Kerrie Lynn, co-director of Charis Circle; and Officer Dani Lee Harris, the LGBT liaison for the Atlanta Police Department.

Resident volunteers are often caught in tough situations with the phrase “present as male,” said caseworker Brown. The shelter often receives complaints from people driving by, from residents living in the area and from city officials that the shelter is co-ed when they see transwomen standing outside the shelter along Pine Street.

Women are allowed to stay in the men’s shelter — because Peachtree-Pine is not supposed to turn anyone away — but they can only stay in the lobby area overnight sitting upright in a chair, said Tony Thomas, the shelter’s spokesperson.

So when given the option of sitting in a chair all night or sleeping in a cot, many transwomen will identify and “present” as male, he added.

And while the transwomen will “present as male” when checking into the shelter, eventually some of them will go back to wearing dresses and wigs the longer they remain in the shelter, he added. This causes confusion to staff and other male clients and results in the transgender woman being forced to leave.

“Transwomen have a lot of issues to deal with. If they wear a wig or women’s clothing, they are kicked out by resident volunteers,” Brown said.

“People are driving by and asking, ‘Why do you have women in a men’s shelter?’” Brown added.

“We have to be very cautious. There is a strict female/male line drawn by the city,” Thomas added.


Safety issues

Transwomen tend to segregate themselves from the rest of the shelter’s population using suitcases to build walls, Brown said, making them easier targets for harassment.

A suggestion to literally segregate the transgender clients in a different area of the shelter is not doable because, again, the transgender women would become easy targets, Brown said. There is also no money for renovations. Plus, there is uncertainty how to do so with the city’s zoning rules the shelter has to follow in its location.

Earlier this month the Task Force put its privately-owned, 95,000-square-foot facility up for sale for $10.5 million.

Task Force officials allege the city is doing everything in its power to close the facility down because it does not want homeless people in the neighborhood located just down the street from the Fox Theatre. City officials have continually complained the shelter serves as a congregation point for criminals and panhandlers.

There have also been complaints that some transwomen who are sex workers stay in the shelter as a way to make money from the male clients, Brown added.

McDaniel said she was sure there were male sex workers staying in the shelter as well and the group agreed a policy should be in place that enforces no sex within the shelter.


‘This is important’

Changing the policy at the Task Force so it is trans-inclusive could be the first step in changing the entire city’s method of dealing with homeless transgender people, Brown said.

“This policy has to happen. It needs to be city wide and it starts with the Task Force,” she said. “Because this is important.”

Educating those working and volunteering at the shelter about transgender issues is also crucial to making the facility safe.

“If we can get trans people off the streets and into a safe space, I will do whatever because I don’t want to get calls because someone is turned away from a shelter because they are trans,” McDaniel said.