TRANS SHELTER = TRANS POWER
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Press Release:
The Outside Project Announces their Trans Winter Night Shelter will run for a 2nd year in Hackney
In 2024 we decided that – given the global political wave against Trans+ people we saw coming – the best use of our time and your support was to open a Trans+ Winter Night Shelter. As a community we managed to build the shelter within 6 weeks and opened on Christmas Eve. The shelter provided over 900 nights off the street over winter 2024/25.
Now, we’re doing it all again!
The Trans+ Winter Night Shelter will provide a safe, supportive refuge for our Trans+ community who are homeless, escaping domestic abuse, seeking asylum, refugees and at risk of sleeping rough.
The Outside Project invites allies, community members, and policymakers to support the Trans+ Winter Night Shelter in any way possible. Tell your rich friends, your boss and your local MP.
For press, sponsorship or corporate partnership enquiries, please contact Co-Founder Director Laik Ecola – Laik@lgbtiqoutside.org
Further information:
Addressing the Need for Housing for Trans+ People in London
The Trans Winter Night Shelter is a direct community-led action in response to the need for crisis housing among the most marginalised members of the LGBTIQ+ community, people that we see everyday at our LGBTIQ+ Centre and through our Outreach service in Westminster.
Trans+ people face unique risks and discrimination when homeless and attempting to access existing crisis housing services. The shelter provides private and communal bedrooms alongside offices and community space.
Our original campaign in 2017 to open an LGBTIQ+ Centre and Shelter in London was a huge success and we’re really proud of our Outreach and Domestic Abuse Refuge services that launched during COVID. Returning to our roots of providing an emergency winter night shelter service, specifically for the Trans+ community, is something that we feel really passionate about. The response from the community in Hackney during our call out for mutual aid assembly points during the race riots in August 2024, and solidarity we have received from the Hackney Winter Night Shelter has made this action possible.
Meeting the Needs of the LGBTIQ+ Community
Since our founding in 2017, The Outside Project has campaigned for and led groundbreaking initiatives to support homeless LGBTIQ+ people in London. From the original LGBTIQ+ Winter Night Shelter in 2017 to the COVID emergency hotel and founding of the UK’s first LGBTIQ+ domestic abuse refuge in 2020, the organisation works tirelessly to address the absence of LGBTIQ+ crisis housing for London’s estimated ½ million LGBTIQ+ population.
Advocating for Systemic Change
While the Trans Winter Night Shelter represents a critical lifeline for Trans+ people over winter, The Outside Project continues to advocate for a permanent solution: year round, LGBTIQ+ Centres and crisis housing in each sub-region of London.
Nik Hann (she / they), Operations Manager for The Outside Project Quote:
‘Having worked frontline the past four winters with The Outside Project, it’s been clear how disproportionally Trans+ people are affected by homelessness.
Gender identity is so often a core reason of why Trans+ people have been made homeless, due to domestic violence, persecution in their country of origin, stigma and prejudice, and, with unequal and non-affirming access to mainstream services, Trans+ people are further pushed to the margins.
This is why it is so important and that we have a dedicated service this winter, and then we can move on to grow, develop this service and increase equity of access to all homelessness services for Trans+ people.‘
The Outside Project marching in the Black Trans Lives Matter protest, London, July 2021
Photo credit: Carla Ecola
TWNS art credit: Laik Ecola
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