Time - USA (2021-03-15)

SPECIAL REPORT

WOMEN and the PANDEMIC

CEYENNE DOROSHOW

on a HOUSING PLAN

that won’t leave anyone out

BY CADY LANG

Ceyenne Doroshow founded Gays and
Lesbians Living in a Transgender Society,
or G.L.I.T.S., in 2015 to help trans and
sex-worker communities with issues like
housing and health care. These needs
became increasingly urgent after the
onset of the pandemic in 2020, one of
the deadliest years on record for trans
and gender- nonconforming people. In
response, Doroshow and her team at
G.L.I.T.S. began fund raising; they bailed
LGBTQIA+ inmates out of COVID-ravaged
jails and housed them in safe Airbnb
rentals; secured rent money for the Black
trans community; and ultimately bought
a $2 million 12-unit residential building
that would be a free safe place for Black
trans folks to live. The G.L.I.T.S. House
in Queens, N.Y., opened in November.
Nearly four months later, all of the units
are filled and personally customized for
each tenant by an interior decorator. In
a nation where more than half a million
people were homeless even before the
pandemic, Doroshow spoke with TIME
about the way forward.

Why was housing insecurity
important for you to address with
G.L.I.T.S.?
▷ I was homeless as a youth, and I
was homeless as an adult. There
was no place where I felt safe. I
often had to go on my own to find
safety and then lie on papers so I
could have sustainability. I never
want my community to have to go
through those hoops and stunts.

What do you ask of your
tenants, with the aim of creating a
sustainable housing solution?
▷ All I ask is that you strive to be the
best you can be. And that is having a
future plan. This is not a shelter. This is
not emergency housing. This is about
building leaders, creating people that can

take the lead, can take charge, and when I’m

gone they can do this work of buying property

in New York City for [their] community.

What do you think could help ensure that

everyone, especially the most vulnerable,

has access to safe and stable housing?

▷ Discretionary funds and letting us

create what we know is going to save our

community. I got tired of asking government

and everyone for help, and I really didn’t want

to, to be honest. It is often heartbreaking to

see how we can work for agencies and not

be supported, but we can create our own

likeness and get the support of the nation

behind us. Because only we know how to

take care of us. Only we know how to create

the blueprint to sustainability when we have

had to live this stuff. We’ve had to be hunted,

chased, unemployed and homeless.

Housing programs fail when they don’t

have a plan. What happens when the pan-

demic is over, where are those people going?

Are they going back to the streets? Are they

getting jobs? Are they going to school? These

are the questions that need to be asked,

because nobody’s asking them. With our

vision, our community will not be left behind.

How did you build a community during a

pandemic?

▷ I think by the love and compassion we

have shown our community. When I bought

this property, I thought of everything. I

thought of the safety of the neighborhood.

I thought of the healing surfaces in a state

park right across the street from us. That

is healing to see the greenery, to know that

you’re not hearing a shoot-out every day,

that it’s not a drug-ridden neighborhood,

that you don’t have to get on an elevator

with somebody that might kill you

because of who you are. We have to

create these things to show that we

care about our own people. Because

then maybe society will care, just a

little more.

‘Letting us create what

we know is going to save

our COMMUNITY.’

JUSTIN FRENCH