Shelter is a core thematic focus in the humanitarian sector. Ensuring displaced persons and people in humanitarian settings have access to safe, secure and dignified shelter is a central component of humanitarian work. Unfortunately, as the resources categorised under shelter reveal, the existing humanitarian system has not ensured that people with diverse SOGIE have access to safe, secure and dignified housing.
Shelter is a diverse SOGIE issue because people with diverse SOGIE may have different needs or family constructions than cisgendered and heterosexual people. For instance, same-sex couples are not able to access housing in humanitarian settings in the same way that heterosexual couples can. Trans people who cannot change their gender on their legal identification documents may not be able to access appropriate shelter, and landlords who maintain long-term resettlement housing may be have biases that negatively impact resettled persons. The resources in this category discuss a wide range of issues: the legal right of people with diverse SOGIE to safe housing; the issues people with diverse SOGIE face in urban resettlement in places such as Nairobi, the United States, and Beirut; the challenges same-sex couples may have in accessing safe shelter in refugee settings; and the driving forces and consequences behind dependency relationships for displaced persons, among other topics. Some of the resources available in this section contain descriptions of GBV and GBV-supportive attitudes.
These resources have been compiled to enable humanitarian practitioners, especially shelter-cluster experts and coordinators, to better understand the complexities of safe, secure and dignified shelter for people with diverse sexual orientations, gender identities and expression.
