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A Supreme Court Judge ruled the city could be held liable for discrimination against a transgender woman who alleges the Department of Homeless Services refused to place her in a women’s or transgender shelter, resulting in her sexual assault.
A New York County Supreme Court Judge will consider a landmark case for the rights of transgender people seeking shelter in New York City after denying the city’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit Friday.
The suit, first reported by City Limits in December, alleges that the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) and its contractors failed to place a Black transgender woman, Jane Doe, in a women’s or trans shelter despite multiple requests, leading to several horrific assaults in shelters by cisgender men. (Doe received permission from the court to proceed anonymously in the case. Her name is withheld in this story as well).
The initial ruling established that the city could be held liable for discrimination by failing to place Doe in a shelter according to her gender identity. If proven, the discrimination case could significantly impact the city’s shelter system.
“Viewed against the backdrop of a national campaign against this marginalized population who have been turned into the whipping posts of the Right in the national dialogue, it is lovely to see New York City courts stand up and ensure justice for trans New Yorkers,” said Armen Merjian, Doe’s attorney and senior staff attorney at Housing Works.
Late last year the city moved to dismiss the case, arguing that Doe waited too long to come forward and that the city’s own policy gives people the right to a placement that aligns with their gender identity.
Doe also alleged that she was repeatedly discriminated against by shelter staff and agents of the city who misgendered her, called her names, and stonewalled her requests for transfers.
On Friday, Judge Lyle Frank denied the city’s motion for dismissal.
“These allegations are sufficient to show discriminatory motive on a system wide basis,” wrote Frank. “A policy alone is insufficient to defeat a claim under [New York City human rights law] if the practice and conduct do not match the non-discrimination policy.”
The frank dismissal of the city’s arguments could be a positive sign for Doe’s case. Lawyers will now try to prove that the city and its agents did indeed discriminate against Doe.
“This is the first ruling that I’m aware of that holds that a municipality, at least outside of the prison context, can be liable for the cross-gender placement of transgender individuals,” said Merjian.
The mayor’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment about if they would continue to fight the case.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani recently announced investments in gender-affirming care and opened a new office for LGBTQIA+ affairs, tasked with shaping city policy amid a national backlash against advances in transgender rights.
“This Administration is firmly committed to strengthening systemwide protections for transgender New Yorkers while ensuring trauma-informed supports across city shelters. We recognize that a safe and affirming environment is absolutely critical to the health and stability of transgender New Yorkers in shelter, and we will continue to take important steps to create safe spaces for them,” said a spokesperson for DHS in a statement.
DHS and the City Law Department declined to comment on the specifics of the case, citing the ongoing litigation.
“All of these acts [of discrimination] occurred under the Adams administration,” said Merjian. “The Mamdani administration has nonetheless continued to fight the case with this kitchen sink series of defenses.”
“I would hope that there would be a change in the tone given the change in administration,” added Julian Castronovo, an attorney with Brooklyn Legal Services who is co-counsel on the case along with Wang Hecker LLP.
Officials had previously pointed to the department’s transgender policy as the most progressive in the country, as well as the opening last year of the nation’s first dedicated transgender shelter as signs of the city’s commitment to serving gender non-conforming individuals.
But the city hasn’t lived up to that high standard, according to some advocates. “There is a significant breakdown to the point at which the policies are just written pieces of paper,” said Castronovo.
The City of New York has a “right to shelter” policy that requires officials to provide a shelter bed to anyone who seeks one.
Currently, people seeking shelter have little control over where they are placed, though they can request transfers to shelters that meet their needs or reasonable accommodations for a disability.
The city operates 250 specialty beds for LGBTQIA+ people, including 190 beds for transgender and non-conforming clients as of December. But it’s not clear if the city actually has enough beds for all those who need them: While DHS doesn’t report an exact number of transgender people in its shelters, one report suggests the agency served 499 LGBTQIA+-identifying people between January and March of this year.
“Real progress is measured by whether individuals can access the appropriate placements and support they need. Seeking shelter is hard enough, and being treated with dignity and respect at the door is the bare minimum,” said Sean Ebony Coleman, CEO of Destination Tomorrow, the operator of the city’s first trans shelter, Ace’s Place, in a statement.
In Doe’s case, she alleges that DHS consistently placed her in men’s shelters and with cisgender men as roommates, even though she disclosed that she was trans.
She alleges that DHS intake workers and shelter staff told her she could not enter a women’s shelter because she had not been on hormone replacement therapy, or HRT, in order to secure a placement at a shelter with her preferred gender expression. Some, but not all transgender people undergo HRT treatment.
Outside counsel for the City of New York argued in court last month that there was no policy on the books requiring residents get Hormone Replacement Therapy.
“There is no such official policy, and as a result, that basic tenet of plaintiff’s complaint falls,” said Roy Breitenbach, an attorney at Harris Beach Murtha, in court last month.
But Merjian said the discrimination was a matter of practice, not policy. Whether the city has a policy about HRT, the city repeatedly discriminated against Doe by failing to place her in a shelter that aligned with her gender identity.
Harris Beach Murtha referred City Limits to the city’s law department for comment.
Several other actions taken by DHS and three city-contracted shelter operators, like misgendering, mistreating, and retaliating against Doe, do directly violate existing DHS and NYC Human Rights Commission policies on serving transgender New Yorkers, Merjian argued.
“The practices here clearly over and over again by multiple people failed and expressed horrible transgender discrimination,” Merjian said in court.
From here, the court will consider whether the city’s actions against Doe did indeed rise to discrimination based on gender identity and disability status.
Doe is suing to secure policy changes, like increased training for DHS and shelter workers, as well as damages for the discrimination she alleges.
A ruling in her favor could also compel the city to live up to its policies that guide the way it conducts intake, provides for reasonable accommodations, and ensure people are placed based on gender identity.
It could also help transgender people bring forward other cases of discrimination in the system.
“We always say what you’re doing is illegal, but to actually point to something where our court found so succinctly that the actions were unlawful—specifically the placements—I expect for this to have a larger impact on people in the shelter systems,” said Castronovo.
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