San Francisco launches guaranteed income program for transgender residents
By Elizabeth Foy, Contra Costa Times
Posted: 04/03/2014 12:35:13 PM PDT
Updated: 04/03/2014 04:05:24 PM PDT
SAN FRANCISCO—The city is expanding a program that guarantees income payments for low-income transgender residents, and the new rules aim to help the city’s homeless population.
Incoming Transgender Ordinance in SF by Michael Smith
Prop. 22 is the second attempt by San Francisco to change the state’s non-discrimination law, after Prop 8, a 2008 initiative. Its backers argue that it will allow transgender and gender non-binary students to begin using the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity. And for San Francisco residents who live with a partner or spouse, the new law would provide equal rights in the workplace and access to city services.
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“These are not people whose lives are affected by the restroom, but by housing,” said Bill Salvin, chief program officer for Tipping Point San Francisco, which is running the program. “They need to know that they’re going to have housing, that they’re going to be eligible for meals and that their health is going to be taken care of.”
Under the measure, the city would assume responsibility for paying up to $900 of the estimated $4,000 annual costs of surgery, hormone treatment, and other transition-related medical care.
The program is estimated to save San Francisco nearly $2 million in health care costs, Salvin said, though that figure is expected to increase as treatment becomes more common and patients can take less costly health insurance coverage.
The program is aimed at low-income residents who may face “substantial barriers to accessing transition-related care, such as low income, lack of health insurance or other barriers to accessing needed medical care,” according to the legislation. Those residents are assumed to include transgender and gender non-binary residents.
The city’s homeless population would not be affected by the program, according to city officials.
“The city will continue to work with local and regional homeless groups to offer homeless service providers access to the community financial assistance,” said Mayor London Breed, who supported Prop. 22 in 2012 and is expected to do so this fall.
“It’s a good compromise that doesn’t take away
