Published by San Francisco Chronicle
When Banko Brown, a 24-year-old transgender Black man, was shot and killed by a Walgreens security guard on Market Street in late April, he was in the middle of a desperate search for a home. According to Julia Arroyo, co-executive director of the Young Women’s Freedom Center where Brown was an intern, he tried shelters, got on waitlists and applied for permanent supportive housing through the city.
Nothing worked. Safe spaces for homeless people who are trans are hard to find.
“He was assaulted on multiple occasions,” she said. “He was physically not safe. He would say, ‘I need housing around other trans people. When they place me in the binary … I’m experiencing violence on both ends.’ ”
Out of options, Brown took to sleeping where he could: in doorways, on BART trains and even in the Young Women’s Freedom Center offices.