How We Defend the Equal Access Rule 

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently released a proposal to alter the Equal Access Rule, which would decimate the existing provisions that ensure equal access, regardless of gender identity, to HUD programs. These rules create protections for gender expansive communities, and this attack will impact all people experiencing homelessness and communities across the country. 

The Vital Importance of the Equal Access Rule 

HUD’s Equal Access Rule (EAR), originally published in 2012 and updated in 2016, requires that individuals be treated based on their gender identity and ensures that eligibility for services is not restricted because of someone’s sexual orientation. These protections are especially critical within the homelessness response system, where vulnerable people seek safety during moments of extreme crisis.   

The EAR reinforces that receiving federal assistance for housing and shelter should not be subject to ideological tests. Moreover, the Rule ensures that providers can serve people based on how they show up to the front door, ensuring that no one is forced to prove their gender identity in ways that would make them feel demeaned, threatened, or unsafe.  

The need for these protections is rooted in both data and lived experience. A disproportionate number of gender expansive people experience homelessness, and many face significant barriers and discrimination when seeking assistance.   

HUD’s Attack on These Protections 

HUD’s proposed rule would deny people access to shelter and housing, increase burdens on service providers, and lead to more visible and costly experiences of homelessness across the country. More specifically, this proposed rule: 

• Removes all references to “gender,” “gender identity,” and “actual or perceived sexual orientation” across all HUD programs. 
• Requires placement and accommodation in emergency shelters and other facilities with shared sleeping quarters or bathing facilities be made in accordance with an individual’s biological sex, rather than self-identified gender identity. 
• Removes prohibitions on inquiries into gender identity so providers may “require reasonable assurances or evidence to establish a person’s sex. 
• Seeks to preempt conflicting state or local requirements and could tie compliance with the new standards to federal funding eligibility. 

These changes have a broad range of operational, legal, and human impacts including:  

• Create red tape for providers: Homeless services providers already operate on 
  shoestring budgets, are stretched for time, and lack adequate staffing. Verifying gender, whether through an invasive process, mandating ID, or otherwise, adding another step of bureaucracy distracts them from the real work at hand: getting people off the streets. 
• Exclude people from services: Verifying each client’s sex before 
  accessing services will likely require identification, if not an invasive process. However, many people living on the streets and shelters lack ID because of the money, supporting documents, or residential address needed to obtain an ID card. 
  And as cities increasingly destroy encampments and displace people, people often lose crucial documents such as birth certificates. Every state also has its own ID processes, complicating implementation across the country. 
• Reduce trust in providers: Service denials and restrictions will jeopardize vital trust by people experiencing homelessness in case managers, shelters, and providers. This trust is necessary to connect people back to housing and will keep people on the streets for longer. 
• Increase visible homelessness and strain local budgets: As vulnerable populations are rejected from shelters, communities will see increased rates of costly and deadly homelessness, which will lead to greater strain on emergency services and local budgets. 

Our Call to Action 

To protect the Equal Access Rule, we need large-scale opposition to these proposed changes to protect our neighbors at risk of most harm.     

Here are some ways you can make a difference now: 

• Sign up for our education and advocacy webinar on May 20 from 2-3pm EST. 
• Submit a public comment in opposition using these tools from our partners at Trans Advocates for Equality. 
  • Identify partners in your community who can submit public comments, such as elected officials, shelter operators, faith-based organizations, and domestic violence providers. 
  • Identify narratives to share in your public comment: how has the Equal Access Rule positively impacted the people you serve, your organization, and the greater community? What are the risks of any attempt to weaken this rule?