Mateo Guerrero (Make the Road NY): Trans migrant housing stories
Mateo Guerrero shares three stories: a trans migrant couple assaulted at a shelter where staff called police instead of de-escalating; a trans elder who believed HIV infection was her only housing pathway; and a queer migrant illegally locked out by their landlord with police assistance at the 102nd precinct.
Hi, good afternoon, everybody.
Thank you, Chair Hudson and Chair Farias, for the opportunity to testify today.
My name is Mateo Guerrero.
I work at Make the World New York.
I'm the Trans Justice and Leadership Program Manager.
And I'm also trans myself and a migrant myself, and I get to work with those communities who are at the intersection of police harassment, housing instability, employment discrimination, immigration processes, et cetera.
I want to share three stories before I name my demands, my asks.
The first story, this is one that we hear very common.
One of our members, whom I'm going to refer to as E, she's a trans woman, a migrant trans woman, and her partner, K, a queer migrant man.
They were assaulted at a shelter by other people, housed at the same facility, based on their gender identity and their sexual orientation.
The staff at the shelter, instead of providing support to intervene or providing support to de-escalate, they called the police and everybody involved.
When the police arrived, they did not provide access to interpretation, and they ultimately arrested Kay.
This case was dismissed in court, but it could have resulted in immigration complications for Kay as he was adjusting his immigration status.
In this case, we see multiple systemic failures.
occurring at once.
One, the discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation, the denial of language access by police, as well as police interaction that can exacerbate complications for their immigration status.
The second story is M, someone who we love very deeply in our community.
She is one of our trans migrant elders.
M, she was very tired of waiting for Section 8 voucher or any other housing subsidy from the city.
And she came to believe that the only way to accessing stable housing was becoming HIV positive.
M has been doing sex work for more than four decades.
And as someone who is aging in the industry, she found herself without a reliable source of income.
And so she felt that this was the only pathway to prevent herself from being unhoused again.
And I'm also going to share the story of F.
He was illegally locked out of their basement apartment just two weeks ago.
This was on June 11th.
F landlord has been denying them the access, the opportunity to bring friends over, even though this was a separate unit.
They were denying them of a lease, denying them of proof of payment of rent, denying them of receiving letters or any proof of residence in their home.
And they have been harassed because of their sexual orientation and gender identity.
On June 11th is when the landlord decided to lock F.
out of the basement apartment.
And the police helped the landlord without giving an opportunity to F to be able to share what had happened and that they actually live in that apartment.
They deny access to interpretation.
And by the way, this was the 102nd precinct.
And they changed the locks.
Since then, F has been couch surfing until this resolves in court.
But they are terrified of going into a city shelter.
They were housed at a male shelter in the past and was very harassed.
And so he does not want they don't want to return there.