Tell HUD: Protect the Equal Access Rule!

The comment period is open from April 28 to June 29. You can submit your comment any time between those dates.

Any individual or organization is eligible to submit a comment.

You can submit a comment as an individual and also a comment on behalf of an organization, but cannot comment twice as the same individual. 

Yes, you are allowed to submit a comment anonymously.

Engaging in the public comment process is not lobbying. You are responding to a request for feedback from a federal agency. 

You can submit a comment electronically by following the instructions through our comment portal that will help you submit directly to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. You can also mail in written or typed comments to the following address:

Regulations Division, Office of General Counsel
Department of Housing and Urban Development, 
451 7th Street SW, Room 10276
Washington, DC 20410-0500 

If you choose to mail in your comments, please make sure to mail them at least a week before the deadline in order ensure they arrive in time to be accepted.

If possible, we are aiming for as many original comments as possible. But what matters most is the total number in support of the Equal Access Rule. 

If you have time to write an original comment that is great, but we encourage you to use whatever supports or resources are needed to draft a comment from your perspective. If helpful, we encourage you to take advantage of the comment templates and sample comments that are provided as part of this toolkit. Feel free to use language and/or information from those resources to help build out your own comments.

Yes. Once a comment is submitted to Regulations.gov it will be posted on their website.

We will use the comment portal to help track how many comments have been submitted to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). This will serve as an important oversight tool on the Administration. 

HUD is supposed to publish all of the comments submitted during comment periods, but this Administration has routinely tested and flaunted legal obligations. Tracking the number of submissions through the Comment Portal will allow us to ensure HUD is not withholding pro-EAR comments from the public.

There is no length requirement for comments. A comment should reflect your perspective, experience, and opinions. 

A large national organization with years of expertise on the issue under consideration may submit a comment that is many pages long. At the same time an individual who simply feels strongly about the issue and wants to ensure their voice is heard may submit a comment that is only a few sentences in length. Both will be accepted, and both are important. More important than the length, is the substance of your comment. 

Removing the Equal Access Rule will exclude people of all identities from services.

• At a time when homelessness is increasing and affordable housing is scarce, we can’t afford to exclude anyone from shelter unnecessarily.
• If clients cannot produce an ID – which many lack due to not having money, supporting documents, or stable place to keep their belongings – providers cannot verify gender, and clients may lose access to shelter.

Removing the Equal Access Rule will prolong unsheltered homelessness.

• The harder it is for someone to seek shelter, the longer they may be on the street.

Removing the Equal Access Rule makes homelessness more dangerous.

• If people cannot seek shelter in accordance with their gender identity, they may be forced to sleep outside.
• Unsheltered people, especially unsheltered trans and gender non-conforming people, face increased risk of violence or impacts of extreme weather.

Removing the Equal Access Rule protections creates more red tape for homeless services providers.

• Homeless services providers already operate on shoestring budgets, are stretched for time, and lack adequate staffing.
• Adding another step of bureaucracy distracts them from the real work at hand: getting people off the streets. 

Removing the Equal Access Rule will increase visible homelessness and strain on local budgets.

• Homelessness programs are already underfunded. 
• As vulnerable populations are rejected from shelters and have no option but to sleep outside, communities will have to incur more costs associated with caring for more people on the streets – leading to greater strain on emergency services and local budgets. 

Protecting transgender people’s access to gender specific facilities does not endanger the safety or privacy of others.

• In 2018, over 300 domestic violence and sexual violence organizations across the country signed a National Consensus Statement. These leaders agreed that transgender women victims being served alongside other women is appropriate and not a safety issue.
• On July 9, 2019, the National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence wrote to HUD to “strongly oppose” rolling back the Equal Access Rule’s protections for transgender shelter-seekers.            
• Similar nondiscrimination protections have been in place for years in over 20 states and over 300 localities and have helped increase fairness and opportunity for vulnerable people, and research shows these protections have not produced any increase in public safety issues.

For a comment template designed for legal services providers, please contact Hannah Adams ([email protected]).

Download the template for LGBTQI+ organizations here.

• The EAR is a series of federal rules that ensure many HUD funded services are not denied based on sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital status.
• The rule was originally issued to ensure family members, such as fathers, teenage boys, and grandparents could access the same shelter as their family.
• It was updated to address barriers faced by transgender and gender nonconforming persons when accessing single-sex facilities.
• The EAR protects universal access to HUD resources, whether it’s keeping a family with their teenage son or protecting access to life-saving resources for a transgender person.

• The EAR protects universal access, but preserving and enforcing the Rule is critical for transgender people who are experiencing homelessness, survivors of violence, and fleeing disasters.
• According to a report by the Williams Institute, LGBTQ+ people experience homelessness and housing insecurity at disproportionately high rates compared to the general population.
• That same report also found that LGBTQ+ individuals are more likely than their non-LGBTQ+ peers to confront housing discrimination, social isolation, and financial instability.
• According to the 2015 US Transgender Survey, nearly one-third of transgender and gender non-binary people experience homelessness at some point in their life; about one-half of transgender and non-binary people who identify as Black, Middle Eastern, Multiracial, or undocumented experienced homelessness at some point in their life.
• The EAR helps to shield transgender people from such discrimination by ensuring they are able to access HUD-funded shelters consistent with their gender identity.  
• Removing the rule would remove any protection against discrimination. 
• While housing transgender people according to their gender identity does not pose a safety issue to others, failing to do so puts transgender people in danger.
• Before these nondiscrimination protections were put in place, a study by the Center for American Progress and the Equal Rights Center found that only 30% of shelters across 4 states would appropriately house trans women with other women, and one in five shelters would turn them away outright.

No, there is simply no need to repeal or replace the Equal Access Rule.

• HUD underwent significant community consultation when designing the final Rule to respond to stated community needs prior to the Rule being finalized.
• No new and significant information has since arisen that would necessitate a review of the Rule.
• No actual, real-world problems posed by the Rule in either its 2012 or 2016 formulation, or by the longstanding local and state laws and policies around the country on which the rule was based, has been identified.
• In fact, the Rule was and is well founded and has been widely embraced by HUD’s community partners as evidenced by no known mass requested exemptions from adherence in the field.

• During HUD’s last attempt to revoke the Rule in 2020, the movement submitted a historic and mass outpouring of tens of thousands of public comments to keep the Rule in place. 
• These comments demonstrated the diversity and expansiveness of partners committed to preserving the Rule.

Among those who supported the rule in 2020 were elected officials, providers, faith-based partners, domestic violence shelter operators, and more. 

• Submitting comments from yourself or your organization is important, but only part of the fight to preserve the Equal Access Rule.
• We also need to encourage as many others to submit comments as possible.

You know your community best. Advocacy around the Equal Access Rule will go furthest when led by you.