The nation’s first government-funded homeless shelter for transgender and gender-nonconforming people opened in New York City’s Queens borough on Wednesday, a nonprofit and city officials announced. The shelter faced sharp criticism from a city council member who said it amplified “progressive political theater.”
Nonprofit Destination Tomorrow and the NYC Department of Social Services said in a joint statement Tuesday that the shelter, Ace’s Place, provides “high-quality transitional housing and specialized support” for transgender and gender-nonconforming New Yorkers who are experiencing homelessness. The statement noted that the shelter opened during a time of a “sustained attack on transgender rights nationwide.”
Local news site The Gothamist reported the Long Island City facility will cost $65 million to operate through 2030. Destination Tomorrow will manage the 150-bed shelter.
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“Ace’s Place will offer transgender New Yorkers a safe place to heal and stabilize in trauma-informed settings with the support of staff who are deeply invested in their growth and wellbeing,” Department of Social Services Commissioner Molly Wasow Park said.
People at the shelter can access resources on securing long-term housing, medical help and financial literacy workshops, among other offerings.
According to The Gothamist, the shelter is the result of a settlement the city reached in 2021 with transgender rights activist Mariah Lopez. She sued the city in 2017, saying she was discriminated against in a city-run shelter because she is a transgender woman. She also said she was sexually assaulted.
The settlement required New York City to provide at least 30 beds exclusively to trans and gender-nonconforming people between the Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and Bronx boroughs, according to court documents.
But New York council member Joann Ariola, a Republican, told The New York Post the city chose to spend money on a “facility based on gender identity” rather than fixing the shelter system for everyone. She added that the money should fund more social workers and police officers to make shelters safer.
Ariola’s office didn’t immediately respond to Straight Arrow News’ request for comment.
According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s 2024 report on homeless populations, 2,561 transgender people experienced homelessness that year. The agency reported a total of 771,480 people were living in emergency shelters, transitional housing or on the streets.
Sean Ebony Coleman, founder and CEO of Destination Tomorrow, named the shelter after his late mother, who was nicknamed Ace and would have turned 72 on Tuesday, according to The Gothamist.
“This shelter is a hard-fought declaration that our transgender and gender nonconforming siblings will no longer be pushed to the margins,” Coleman said in the release. “Ace’s Place is a community-driven answer to systemic neglect, and it’s only the beginning.”
Wraparound services offered
According to the city, the shelter will have case management, group and individual counseling, housing placement assistance, referrals for medical and mental health services, support groups, job placement assistance, college preparation and workshops on life and financial literacy skills.
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Around 40% of transgender adults and 35% of nonbinary youth have experienced homelessness during their lives, compared to 23% of cisgender LGBQ youth, according to the Trevor Project.
A full-time psychiatric nurse will work with social workers and other staff for mental health support.
Destination Tomorrow, according to the release, will offer holistic health services and a culinary work-study program for people seeking to enter that field.
City and state leaders said the shelter’s opening highlights New York’s support of the LGBTQ+ community. The city is home to the Stonewall Uprising, a series of violent demonstrations by the LGBTQ+ community in response to police raids at the historic Stonewall Inn, according to the National Parks Service.
HUD eliminates Equal Access Rule
The shelter’s opening comes nearly three months after HUD Secretary Scott Turner ended the department’s 2016 Equal Access Rule. The mandate, signed by former President Barack Obama in 2012, expanded in 2016 to cover transgender people seeking help at federally funded shelters. It gave LGBTQ+ people protections under the Fair Housing Act, The Associated Press reported.
The nonprofit Advocates for Trans Equality reported that 1 in 5 trans people in the U.S. have been discriminated against while seeking housing.
Turner called the policy a “far-left gender ideology” and reaffirmed President Donald Trump’s executive order declaring that only two sexes exist. Turned said housing programs, shelters and HUD-funded partners will give services to people based on sex at birth.
“We, at this agency, are carrying out the mission laid out by President Trump on January 20th when he signed an executive order to restore biological truth to the federal government,” Turner said.
