softersideoftown

My husband, Mitch De Shane is a transgender male. I suffer from mental illness. I guess you could say we are an odd couple. Recently, I was homeless when a local housing authority refused to add me to Mitch's Section 8 Voucher. He is disabled, and I am partially disabled due to a door falling on me at work. We were denied housing because the local housing authority did not recognize "Domestic Partnership" as a valid marriage. We were told to, "Go down the street where they accept anybody, even Martians." We filed a formal complaint of discrimination with HRC Washington State, on the basis of "marital status”, “sexual orientation", and "gender identity". Ultimately, we reached a settlement agreement rather than litigate our case before a state judge. There was a lot of time and energy expended on our case. Through the collaboration of local advocacies, such as Northwest Fair Housing, Washington State H.R.C., and HUD, we were able to obtain our Section 8 Voucher. In the process, we lost everything we owned, including our car.

When we had nothing but despair, we did not want to remain in this state, so we planted a tiny seed of hope within our own hearts. With children at home, we knew we couldn’t survive on hope alone; we had to eat. We also needed to plant a seed of understanding and compassion in their young hearts and consciousness. With little money, we managed to afford seeds .We had every window in our house heaped with recycled juice cans, coffee cans, and the like. In these containers contained the necessary soil and seedlings .We named each seed after a different friend that was also homeless, or experiencing discrimination, or that was couch surfing, or that showed love for our plight and others.

We involved them, the hopeless, the helpless, the drifters, and others that helped encourage us, every step of the way. It was our HOPE GARDEN~ All of us! Our children were watching us too. We said, for everything negative that this discrimination ordeal deals out; we will forgive, and plant a seed of its opposite intent. We believe this kind of love can bring our nation together .There is power in that kind of manifestation thinking, and as our garden began to grow, so did our self worth, self respect and dignity.

When the call came that we had won our discrimination decision, we were already eating from our huge HOPE GARDEN. In fact, we were giving most of the food away to our neighbors, and friends. We gained confidence in our state and local governments and great respect for our local community too. Two different churches helped us pay our rent for two months, and helped with our utilities. We were so grateful to have our voucher that we decided to "pay it forward". Through Social Networking such as FB, and Skype, Android technology, texting and Internet, we began to set up a shelter hotline, leading our friends off the streets and into shelters all over the country. Once out of the shelters we help them find friends, or relatives, or churches that offered a spare room, or couch to sleep on. Next, we lead them to housing programs offered through H.U.D. The problem arises when the waiting lists for these programs are closed, due to demand.

During this last 18 months, we have collected stories from our transgender friends, some of them are already in a public assistance program, and some couch surfing, but all face various forms of discrimination. I have been sending "The Transgender Story of the Week” to various local, state, and Federal Agencies ,and now to media outlets in the hope of raising public awareness and compassion for the plight of the glbt and transgender person. As a way of thank you to all the local, state, and federal agencies that helped us in our discrimination case, I made a Youtube video entitled Hope .It is now being seen by local housing authorities to help train staff in the area of sensitivity to glbt, transgender issues. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvYQa5lCxUI

Our Hope Story represents resiliency of the human spirit. We are changemakers because even though we were discriminated against in a public housing program, we chose not to litigate. We planted hope where there was none. We planted a seed of love where there was hate, and as you will see this hope seed has grown into a labor of love.
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I feel most connected in front of my computer helping my fellow man through networking.When I was younger I felt most at home in an art museum or a natural setting, such as sitting in a tree.
For many homeless transgender people, waiting can be a death sentence. See [The GLBT Task Force Report released this today 03 february,2011]

HOUSING DISCRIMINATION AND HOMELESSNESS

• Respondents reported various forms of direct housing
discrimination — 19% reported having been refused
a home or apartment and 11% reported being evicted
because of their gender identity/expression.
•One-fifth (19%) reported experiencing homelessness
at some point in their lives because they were transgender
or gender non-conforming; the majority of those trying
to access a homeless shelter were harassed by shelter
staff or residents (55%), 29% were turned away altogether,
and 22% were sexually assaulted by residents or staff.
• Almost 2% of respondents were currently homeless, which
is almost twice the rate of the general population (1%).

http://endtransdiscrimination.org/PDFs/NTDS_Report.pdf

After seeing the data, and hearing the stories fo over a year and a half, my husband and I, and another friend highlighted last week in "Transgender Story of the Week" decided to form a think tankon a kind of shelter that could be self sustaining.My father lived in an alternative house and introduced me to this concept many years ago.I have also been studying alternative housing apllications for many years.something else of interest has been the idea of social enterprising.When the three of us began a series of conversations ,we decide to move into action.My friend and counselor Susan Collins came up with the name; Softer Side of Town.To each of us it means somethng different, but to anyone living on the street, they will tell you they need to come home to a softer side of town.
Softer Side of Town , and it's innovators, are transgender, GLBT community members , degreed, and once victims of circumstance.We are dedicated to finding solutions to our own homelessness through building the first sustainable,residence/shelter, based on a social enterprise model.We are currently forming our collaboration teams , and now have a private domain http://www.softersideoftown.org/
We will utilize changemakers collaboration groups to design and implement all phases of this social enterprise.It goes beyond a residence for homeless, in fact we are also developing The Softer Side of Town Residence Program.We feel passionately about building this “residence”, moving away from the word shelter .We would like to replicate this model and plan on selling it to interested enterprising individuals as a working model,franchise if you will,in every major metropolitan city in America by 2020.

Our vision for this type of residence, The Softer Side of Town Residence Program, is built on social enterprise focusing on the holistic bottom line—successfully combining mission and profitability.

Softer side of Town will be a revenue generating business with the primary purpose of providing job skills and services to the clients we serve, e.g. people in recovery, and are transitioning out of homelessness.

For Softer Side of Town, making a profit is not the main goal, although we will look at income making models to generate enough revenue to help underwrite the cost of providing our services, thus requiring less grant funding.

Our mission is to operate a hotel business that can provide short term stay for tourists while generating additional revenue to ensure long term stay providing education, and job skills to our transitioning homeless transgender community.

Softer Side of Town is a model for a foundation that can be financially viable, that will do well for our target clients, the marginally housed and disenfranchised transgender community, helping this minority group of society achieve balance for them, and for our planet.

Our clients will be chosen by a selection committee and will come to The Softer Side of Town Residence Program because they have big dreams: One of those dreams is to become self sufficient while being provided beautiful accommodations in residency gaining hands on experience and training for a successful career in hospitality, cosmetology , and culinary arts.

Softer Side of Town Program Residents will be offered opportunities to meet potential employers and industry leaders, to work in internships, find jobs and gain experience .

Softer Side of Town Program Residents will live and work at the Softer Side of Town Residence and commute to a neighboring university or community college.

Example: While living at The Softer Side of Town Residence Hotel , they might attend a college like Hilton University of Houston, which gives Softer Side of Town Program Residents the opportunity to earn a Bachelor of Science in Hotel and Restaurant Management. Some of our residents may attend a chef school and use their skills in The Softer Side of Town Hotel Residence Restaurant. Some may choose cosmetology and work in our full service salon.

After attending class, they will come home to A Softer Side of Town Hotel Residence where they will be treated just like any other hotel guest, with a private clean, energy efficient room.

While our clients are in residence ,they will begin to apply what they are learning toward running and operating The Softer Side of Town Residence Hotel. Some may chose to stay and live and provide their services and talents to the successful operation of The Softer Side of Town Residence, and some will choose to pursue their career skills replicating The Softer Side of Town Residence Model in other metropolitan communities around the nation.

GREEN BUILDING - Softer Side of Town Residence Hotel will use energy efficiency, heating, lighting, through renewable energy. Our water usage will incorporate, storm water runoff for landscape maintenance and vegetable garden. We will incorporate green roofs, design/orientation, windows, ventilation, materials, air quality, insulation, and landscaping.

I am a teacher, and commercial driver turned advocate for homeless.I have been running what I call, a "virtual underground railroad "for the marginally housed .and homeless transgender I have been working from my home for a year and a half.Using social networks, we connect our clients in the community with available shelters and community resources.We then work on long term solutions for their housing needs.Each week, we collect stories from people who we are helping and send them to local advocacies and state agencies who offer income assistance for low income people.One of the ways we help is guiding our friends to the various housing programs through HUD.For the transitioning man or woman there is a process to follow.We lead them to health care specialists and counselors who are knowledgeable about transgender issues.We catalog the names of shelters, and community servixces which are helpful and which ones that are not. We post our friends and allies on line, as well as the shelters who say they are glbt friendly , but in reality, some not.[See GLBT Task Report]One-fifth (19%) reported experiencing homelessness
at some point in their lives because they were transgender
or gender non-conforming; the majority of those trying
to access a homeless shelter were harassed by shelter
staff or residents (55%), 29% were turned away altogether,
and 22% were sexually assaulted by residents or staff.

We offer support and encouragement to our friends , the homelss transgender.
People are happy to talk to us because we were discriminated against,we were vicitms, and told to "go down the road where they accept anybody, even Martians."WE ARE POSITIVE and Loving , and Compassionate,and are seen as role models and leaders within our community.

We are still in the Discovery Process, researching information from social entrepreneurs and experts, and then incorporating it into ideas that will help us construct a social enterprise with the idea of making a viable profit making residence for homeless GLBT.

My teaching experience helps with the overall organization as well as skills and working knowledge of social networking platforms.I am currently taking an online class to learn about IBM Lotus Symphony ,Cloud -a software technology specializing in social enterprise.The Cloud application is an invaluable collaboration tool that enables a group of people from various locations around the world, to work on the same document,and project at the same time.