Inside San Francisco's First-of-Its-Kind Shelter For Transgender Youth

Speaker 1: 00:00 Advocates across the United States rd crying a proposed policy from the Trump administration that would make it easier for a homeless shelters to discriminate against trans individuals. Meanwhile, San Francisco is leading the nation by opening the only transitional housing shelter programs specifically designed for Trans Youth K Qeds, Michelle Wiley reports Speaker 2: 00:24 between the dozens of Victorian homes that line San Francisco's hate districts. It's the only longterm transitional living program specifically designed for Trans identified youth in the state. The program opened quietly back in February and then over here's the kitchen. You can just Larkin Street youth services, which runs the program, says they saw a need to create a trans specific shelter for youth who may avoid traditional shelters where their gender identity may not be understood or respected. Speaker 1: 00:50 Oftentimes they're reluctant to go into a traditional transitional living program or a shelter because for example, the restrooms maybe not gender neutral, so they're forced to choose program director Matthew for sure in this environment. It creates, um, a gender neutral space and they're with peers like themselves who are kind of going through the same exploration that they are Speaker 2: 01:14 currently. The shelter is home to five trans identified youth between the ages of 18 and 24 my name is Bobby. I'm 23 years old. I'm was born and raised in California and I relocated to San Francisco about a year ago. Bobby grew up in San Jose into a family of 12 her parents are mostly absent and when they were there they were under the influence. Bobbie says she was a troubled kid. She didn't graduate high school, started selling drugs, and eventually ended up getting incarcerated. It was in jail that she came out as trans and I remember like getting beat up for it and then after that I kind of was just like, well, I just dealt with this in jail. Who cares now? You know what I mean? There's no, I feel like there no harsher experience. We're coming out. After getting out, Bobby moved to San Francisco. Then one night out with friends, she got into a fight and ended up going to jail again during intake. Speaker 2: 02:07 She told the guards that she was trans, but something different happened this time. She was taken to a section with other trans women. As time passed, I didn't see them as trans. I saw them as other woman and I was thinking like, no, I'm here. And I'm with them and this is my family. Since leaving jail, Bobby's been staying at the shelter in the hate. She says, being in the shelter allows her to relax. San Francisco itself is so beautiful. Like if I want to go out for a walk, which is to me sounds funny, but that's something I enjoy doing, you know? So it's learning how to just like live a lifestyle that's an, I feel like there's such a negative connotation with this word, but normal. And that's the idea behind the shelter, to allow Trans youth the space to relax, create connections, and focus on building a new kind of life. Bobby says she's going to look for a job or maybe go back to school. Official. Say they're working on bringing in one more person to fill the six bed shelter for the California report. I'm Michelle Wiley. Speaker 3: 03:03 [inaudible].