May 19, 2020 --- As a trans-led organization, we are concerned about the inaccessibility of the Disaster Relief Assistance for Immigrants (DRAI) program for Transgender, gender-nonconforming, and Intersex (TGI) people. Unlike The CARES Act, which provided many with a stipend with little to no additional information required, DRAI creates additional hurdles for undocumented people to access money that has already been allocated for them. Those applying for the DRAI program must provide a home address, proof of COVID-19 impact due to employment loss, and proof that they do not qualify for the CARES Act. Additionally, there is a cap of $1000 per household, or no more than two applicants per single home address, regardless if the applicants live as a “single-family” household or not. This requirement erroneously assumes that people live in nuclear family houses. When in fact, TGI people often create and rely on networks of co-living for survival, in which it is very common for more than 2 undocumented TGI people live in the same household. These practices particularly impact the access of Black and Latinx TGI people.
As we have often highlighted, this is yet another example of how TGI people are not considered and do not have access to the services that we need. All organizations distributing money under DRAI are non-LGBTQ specific, which further impacts LGBTQ people, particularly TGI people, from accessing these funds. Communities such as sex workers, houseless people, those who have been recently released from immigration detention who do not have any type of documentation, and all others that live at the intersections of identifying as TGI will experience significant difficulties in accessing DRAI funds.
Undocumented TGI people, many of whom are seeking asylum and ineligible for work, are not able to get a letter from employers, and cannot prove how they have been affected by COVID-19. In addition, for people who do not have access to the internet, the phones have been saturated – we are already seeing the impact of this on the first day and in the inability to even reach an operator. Now, the distributing organizations are trying to dissuade people from panic applying for resources, but the program was largely promoted on a scarcity model of "first come, first served." If California truly cares for all undocumented people, especially TGI people, they should rethink the ways in which the DRAI funds are distributed.
The TransLatin@ Coalition urges the State of California and Los Angeles County Department of Social Services and the local non-profits who were granted these funds to reconsider the requirements and understand the specific needs of undocumented TGI individuals and are least likely to access these funds and should not be disqualified for being unable to meet the requirements.