Calling it “a transformative investment in the future of Black Trans women,” a coalition of community organizations has opened the Ts Madison Starter House, a new reentry home for formerly incarcerated Black trans women in Atlanta, Georgia.
The innovative project is a collaboration between Black and trans performer and producer Madison, NAESM, Inc., an Atlanta-based nonprofit and one of the oldest Black-led HIV/AIDS service organizations in the South, and A New Way of Life’s SAFE Housing Network, a national collective providing safe reentry housing to formerly incarcerated people.
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The Starter House occupies Madison’s former home and will welcome up to four women at a time, according to The Atlanta Voice.
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“I wanted to use this house as a conduit for girls to become great,” Grammy winner Madison told Gaye Magazine. “I was a girl that was disenfranchised and homeless and was in sex work, and so many great things have happened in this house… I want people to understand that it’s not where you start, it’s where you go.”
The first-of-its-kind program in the South provides residents with psychological support, health and wellness care, and workshops centered on business plan development and project management.
Residents are called “stakeholders” in acknowledgement of their role in the Black queer and trans liberation movement.
“When I first came up with the idea to donate my first house to charity, I thought about how I moved to Atlanta homeless, broke, poor, sick from silicone poisoning, and with no sense of direction or place to go,” Madison told Forbes. “One of my trans sisters took me in and became like a second mother to me. She motivated me and gave me the tools to start over and make it on my own.”
Nearly half (47%) of Black transgender people have endured incarceration at some point in their lives, compared to 16% of trans people overall and 21% of trans women, according to a National LGBTQ Task Force survey. Black trans Americans face an unemployment rate (20%) four times higher than average and a poverty rate (38%) three times higher, according to the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey.
“We envision a world where Black Trans women are not just surviving, but thriving. Where systemic barriers no longer dictate access to safety, dignity, or success,” NAESM said in an announcement of the project’s opening. “The TS Madison Starter House is a blueprint for a future where community-led solutions can withstand any political climate, any discrimination, and any effort to erase us.”
“In the face of erasure, we still find solutions,” trans actress and activist Monroe Alise said at the Starter House ribbon-cutting last week on Trans Visibility Day. “They are trying to erase Black trans and nonbinary individuals throughout the country, the 1%. It really isn’t about us, but they’re just starting with us. In this time, we must come together, stand together, and be more visible than ever.”
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