Repealing HUD’s Equal Access Rule Leaves Vulnerable Unhoused Trans Women and Youth at Risk and Without Safe Shelter
The Trump administration has made it clear that it is waging an all-out culture war against the most vulnerable populations in the U.S., with transgender individuals caught squarely in the crosshairs.
As winter storms continue to crisscross the country, the administration decided it will no longer enforce the 2016 Equal Access Rule. The rule requires all homeless shelters that receive HUD funding to grant equal access to people of all genders, which increased access to critical services for trans and gender nonbinary folks.
HUD Secretary Scott Turner said the decision to not enforce the Equal Access Rule is based on President Trump’s mission to “restore biological truth to the federal government.” However, advocates say it will make it harder for trans women, youths, and people experiencing domestic violence to access critical shelter and services.
“Domestic violence and youth services were historically very strictly gender-segregated into men’s and women’s programs, and trans folks are overrepresented among youth experiencing homelessness and people experiencing violence in general,” Katie Meyer Scott, youth homelessness director at the National Homelessness Law Center, told Invisible People.
Transgender and gender nonbinary individuals faced significant obstacles toward accessing services and shelter before the Equal Access Rule was implemented. While the rule did not solve every issue these populations faced, it did expand the number of available services for them.
Discrimination and Homelessness Disproportionately Impact Transgender and LGBTQIA+ Youth
A report from HUD found that 10% of transgender individuals in the U.S. reported being evicted because of their gender expression. Another 30% reported being turned away from shelters, while 22% said they were sexually assaulted while inside a shelter.
LGBTQIA+ youths are also 120% more likely to experience homelessness than their cisgender counterparts, according to data from advocacy group True Colors United. These individuals also make up roughly 40% of the total number of unhoused youths in America, which is estimated at up to 2.8 million.
As the country’s affordable housing shortage and homelessness crisis continue to worsen, advocates like Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters say the Equal Access Rule protections are needed now more than ever.
“Despite Secretary Turner’s cruelty, individuals must be aware that Fair Housing Act protections may still apply at the federal level, as well as additional protections that may be available at the state and local level,” Waters said.
This isn’t the first time that Trump has taken aim at unhoused transgender individuals. In 2020, the Trump administration proposed an amendment to the Equal Access Rule that would allow shelters to disregard an individual’s gender identity and place an individual in a gender-specific space based on a “good faith” determination of an individual’s gender.
That proposed rule resulted in advocates submitting more than 66,000 public comments during the 60-day rulemaking process, which was the most comments HUD received for any proposed rule.
The volume of public comments submitted is critical because the agency is required to review each comment, National Alliance to End Homelessness CEO Ann Oliva explained at the time.
Public Outcry Previously Stopped Trump’s Anti-Trans Shelter Policy—It Can Again
The Biden administration rescinded the Trump rule in April 2021, effectively restoring the promise to provide unhoused transgender and gender nonbinary individuals with equal access to services and shelter. The administration described the attempt to roll back the rule as an effort to allow “HUD-sanctioned, federally funded discrimination against transgender people, who already face disproportionately high rates of homelessness and extreme risk in unsheltered homelessness,” according to documents filed in the Federal Register.
A similar effort may be required to block the Trump administration’s efforts this time around, Oliva added. “The volume and legal sophistication of this opposition response successfully blocked this effort,” Oliva wrote in a blog on February 14, 2025.
We Need You to Protect Equal Access for Unhoused Transgender and Nonbinary Individuals
The Trump administration’s latest attack on Equal Access protections puts transgender and nonbinary individuals at greater risk of violence, homelessness, and discrimination. Safe shelter is a fundamental human right, yet these policy rollbacks make it harder for vulnerable people to access the support they need.
As citizens protest the Trump administration across the country, we need you to stand up and support providing unhoused transgender and nonbinary individuals with equal access to services and shelter.
Now is not the time to be silent about homelessness. Here’s how you can help:
- Contact your elected officials – Demand that your representatives uphold equal shelter access and fight against policies that discriminate against unhoused transgender individuals.
- Raise awareness—Share this article, discuss this issue, and challenge harmful narratives that fuel discrimination. Public pressure has stopped these rollbacks before, and it can again.
Poverty and homelessness are policy choices, not personal failures. If we want to create a world where no one is denied shelter based on their gender identity, we must speak up, take action, and demand change.
