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Scarce Queer-Affirming Housing Resources "A disabled trans woman called because they heard we could help with housing... I had kind of an immediate heart-sink moment because it's so hard to find housing solutions." - SQSH Peer Counselor
Figure 3: Availability of Affirming Resources
The figure above shows the extent to which appropriate resources were or were not available for SQSH's Peer Counselors to provide to callers based on callers' identities, resource requirements, and access needs. Only 16.4% of all housing-related calls included at least one successful resource referral (which constitutes a resource that meets all or most of the caller's needs). In almost 60% of housing-related calls from queer folks, SQSH volunteers were either unable to provide any resources that were queer-affirming, or were only able to provide some resources that did not meet all/most of the caller's needs. "St. Louis doesn’t have the housing resources that unhoused and housing insecure callers need. I always kind of dread when I get a caller looking for a trans-friendly shelter or transitional housing option, because the only thing I can do is safety plan with them about how to stay as safe as possible in shelters or housing facilities that, in all likelihood, will misgender, deadname, or flat-out reject them due to their sex assigned at birth. Queer and trans callers have likely already faced some form of rejection due to their queerness from family, friends, workplaces, etc. The hurt only cuts deeper when the systems themselves are designed to make queer and trans folks disappear." - SQSH Peer Counselor
