Houseless trans woman forced into men's shelter & sexually assaulted in NYC sues cityhttps://www.lgbtqnation.com/2026/07/houseless-trans-woman-forced-into-mens-shelter-sexually-assaulted-in-nyc-sues-city/ 🔗John Russell (22 July 2026)
A Manhattan Supreme Court judge ruled this week that a lawsuit brought by a transgender woman against New York City alleging discrimination in the city's shelter system can move forward.
The woman, identified in court documents as "Jane Doe," claims the city violated the New York City Human Rights Law (NYCHRL), which bans discrimination on the basis of gender and gender identity.
In the complaint, Doe claims that in 2022 she became homeless and sought shelter through 311, the city's non-emergency service and information line. Doe alleges that a 311 dispatcher she spoke to and multiple New York City Department of Homeless Services (DHS) staffers told her that transgender women who have not been on hormone replacement therapy for at least a year were not allowed in women's shelters — in direct contradiction of DHS policy. As the complaint notes, DHS policy states that the department "places clients in units according to the gender they report during the intake process."
The complaint further alleges that Doe was sexually assaulted and harassed by other residents at one of three men's shelters where she was housed, and that her repeated requests to be transferred to a women's shelter or to a bed set aside for trans and gender non-conforming people (TGNC bed) were denied. When she was finally assigned to a TGNC bed at a women's shelter, Doe alleges that "staff repeatedly misgendered her, mocked her clothing, called her a 'whore,' and told her she looked like a sex worker," and that she was again sexually assaulted and harassed by cisgender men who were placed in her room.
