BALTIMORE -- Maryland is welcoming transgender individuals with open arms — but there’s nowhere to put them, a Baltimore nonprofit says.
On June 5, Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, signed an executive order to protect gender affirming health care in Maryland as legislation seeking to outlaw such care sweeps across the nation, mostly targeting minors.
“The order will protect those seeking, receiving, or providing gender affirming care in Maryland from attempts at legal punishment by other states,” a press release on the order reads.
Since the signing, Baltimore Safe Haven has received over 7,000 phone calls, mostly from out of state, seeking housing in Baltimore. The organization operates a drop-in center and offers transitional housing for “those in the TLGBQ community, particularly black transgender women who were living in survival mode,” according to its website.
Renee Lau, the organization’s director of senior and disabled housing, said they typically get between 800 and 1,000 calls a month.
Lau said that while Moore is a “great person” who decided to open up the state’s borders to transgender people, “no one expected the need that’s coming forth.” Recently, a transgender couple were found sleeping on the doorstep of Baltimore Safe Haven’s drop-in center. In the house Lau lives in, three people are from out of state.
“There’s a lot of those red states [that] are making laws that almost make it unbearable for trans people to get health care or even live,” Lau said. “Maryland being a sanctuary state gives them that opportunity to live freely.”
Baltimore Safe Haven has five houses, with room for about six to seven people per house, Lau said. They’re at capacity.
“The need far outweighs what we actually have to offer,” Lau said. “There is desperate need to either provide a building or go back to getting the motels or hotels like we had before to have emergency transition housing for these people.”
As an employee with Baltimore Safe Haven, Kandice Baker has seen the influx of individuals needing help and guidance firsthand. She’s also been where they are.
In January, Baker, 35, moved to Maryland from Dallas. Baker, a trans woman, made the leap despite not knowing anyone in Baltimore; she was running for her life.
In Texas, Baker said she suffered physical, sexual and emotional abuse at the hands of a man she’d been seeing. Baker said she couldn’t get police to take her seriously.
The Baltimore Sun only identifies victims of sexual abuse with their permission.
Baker said Rescue America — which aims to “rescue, revive and empower the sexually exploited,” according to its website — was able to secure her a plane ticket to Baltimore, where she spent 19 days in the hospital with mpox and then several months in quarantine.
“There was a lot of places that wouldn’t accept me because I was transgender,” Baker said. “I stayed in a hotel room for a week, on edge, because I didn’t know where I was gonna go.”
Baker now lives in a Baltimore Safe Haven house and does mobile outreach for the organization. She still recalls how relieved she felt when she finally found stable housing in Baltimore.
“It was empowering. It was a sense of relief,” Baker said. “It took a lot of weight off my chest.”
Baker said there’s a stark contrast when it comes to living as a transgender woman in Baltimore versus Dallas. While in Texas, Baker had to convince her therapist monthly that she was “still feeling trans.” But here, she is exploring surgery.
Lau said that Baltimore Safe Haven provides free transitional housing for those who are between 18 and 24 years old and low rent for others. At the house Lau oversees, for example, rent is $225 a month.
Lau expects the housing shortage to get worse next year when the Trans Health Equity Act goes into effect, expanding the list of gender affirming procedures that will be covered under Medicaid.
Iya Dammons, the founder and executive director of Baltimore Safe Haven, agrees. She said the transgender community is in a state of emergency when it comes to housing.
“I’m at my capacity of being able to handle this,” Dammons said.
Irene Agustin, the director of the Mayor’s Office of Homeless Services, says her office has not seen a significant uptick in the amount of people needing services. But that doesn’t mean the need isn’t there, she added, because some people will feel more comfortable going directly to organizations that specifically service the LGBTQ+ community, like Baltimore Safe Haven.
Agustin said that according to data from the Homeless Management Information System, as of June 30, 2022, there were 15 people receiving homeless services in Baltimore who identified as transgender. By June 30 of this year, that number jumped to 39. Agustin said even with the increase, that number is likely underreported, which is part of a national problem.
The potential increase in individuals heading to Maryland as a result of anti-transgender laws is a concern, Agustin said, because even without increased volume more affordable permanent housing is needed in the city.
In a statement provided via email, Moore spokesperson Carter Elliott said the Moore administration “takes the state’s challenges with housing and homelessness very seriously” and will work with the state legislature to “implement new housing programs funded through the legislature during the 2023 session” in addition to work the Department of Housing and Community Development is doing with transitional and affordable housing statewide.
“To the people living in states where their leaders are rolling back their rights Governor Moore’s message is simple: come to Maryland, come to a place that instead of discriminating against you will welcome you and fight for you,” the statement reads.
-------
