Asheville has no shelter that will appropriately house a transgender person. No safe place to sleep, falling temperatures, and no accommodating shelters in the area means that many face the cold winter months on the street with little to no support. Tranzmission's Emergency Shelter Fund is set up to help eliminate the dangers of living on the street. We offer financial assistance to those who find themselves without a place to stay and offer a stipend for those who can offer safe harbor.
Housing costs in Western North Carolina continue to rise. Impacted deeply by this is the trans community. Biases and phobias keep trans people from accessing safe, affordable housing. Lack of shelter, extreme temperatures, and violence pointed directly at trans people makes finding and keeping a job difficult, so getting off the street becomes even harder. The homeless shelters in our area do not allow trans people to shelter in areas appropriate for their gender identity, increasing violence.
The immediate goal is to get people off the street, and into a safe living situation. With no shelters in the area that are safe spaces, options are very limited. Police routinely destroy homeless camps and dispose of any personal items found, including all warm bedding needing to stave off the elements. We work within the community to find roommate opportunities and offer compensation for housing the individual until they are able to provide for themselves.
For individuals, the long term impact is health, happiness, self sufficiency. As an organization, our long term impact is to open a nonbinary/transgender shelter that offers safe housing to anyone, regardless of gender identity. For the community, the long term impact is a decrease in homelessness, and promote safer living conditions for our nonbinary and transgender community.
