New Orleans To Become First In The US To Open A Homeless Shelter For Trans People
New Orleans could soon become the first in the US to open a homeless shelter for trans and gender-nonconforming people. The House of Tulip has put in a bid on some properties which they hope to renovate for their sanctuary, founders Mariah Moore and Milan Nicole Sherry said.
An online fundraiser has showed that 4,700 people have already given nearly $263,000 of the $400,000 organisers said they need to make the homeless shelter happen.
Moore, an organiser for the Transgender Law Center, said a place like House of Tulip could have changed her life when she was a young trans woman and became a sex worker without a permanent home.
“Imagine if you had your own small safe place, surrounded by people who are there to protect you,” she said.
As ‘US News’ report, House of Tulip aims to be more than a shelter. Ideally, Moore said, occupants would be able to rent and then buy the houses. Ultimately, the House of Tulip — for “Trans United Leading Intersectional Progress” — could build new small homes to expand its work.
“There is no model for what we’re doing,” said Dylan Waguespack, 28, the project's treasurer and one of 10 founders. “This is something brand new.”
Sherry, 28, said she envisions the House of Tulip in 10 years as a place that the trans community can “take care of ourselves.”
She is is a co-founder of BreakOUT!, an activist organisation for LGBT+ youth in New Orleans. Part of the challenge faced by trans people is the dismissive attitude of society, she said.
With the House of Tulip, “we’re fighting for a space in a world that doesn’t see us as valuable, that doesn’t see our humanity,” she said.
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