Rainbow NGOs seek homes for persons in unsafe environments

Various gay rights NGOs have registered an uptick in people in distress who are either losing their homes, or have become homebound in unsafe places they are unable to leave.

In the past weeks, the Malta LGBTIQ Rights Movement (MGRM), Checkpoint Malta, and LGBTI+ Gozo, have received messages from people who have found themselves unable to pay rents or stuck in unsafe home environments due to the COVID-19 isolation measures.

Now the NGOs are reaching out to the public in the hope of creating a register of places available for people to move out of their homes.

“Unfortunately all the rooms and apartments we had been offered before the pandemic started are already full. This highlights how acute the situation is, leaving us without option but to turn away people,” MGRM’s Alex Caruana said.

“The majority of messages are from foreign LGBT persons who are ‘stuck’ in Malta. One of the cases, in particular, was a transgender person who contacted us because she was facing some issues regarding papers because she is a third-country national [non-EU]. We had approached a person who had offered accommodation previously, however it transpired she was already hosting a rainbow family.

“That alarmed us because it means families and individuals might not be contacting us because they think we don’t have the resources to help them. That is why we are asking the community for rooms or apartments to offer, so that if we are approached we would have resources to help.”

The NGOs are now trying to find accommodation for people at risk, or who have already become homeless, to build a database of vacant places that can be used for “altruistic purposes.”

Caruana said housing for LGBT people and minorities was already an issue even before the coronavirus epidemic began. “We already had some people who needed to get out of unsafe environments – such as foreigners, in particular Africans, because they find it very difficult to find alternative accommodation when normally their jobs are low-paid. We have two currently living with their community in a flat, and they are not comfortable at all.”

Caruana also said the MGRM had received an alarming amount of calls from HIV positive persons who expressed concern at calls from the health ministry for vulnerable people to self-isolated. “There is a huge stigma on HIV, and a lot of people don’t even tell their parents, let alone their employers that they are HIV positive. So on that side, we had a lot of people contacting us.”

According to the European Centre for Disease Control, there are over 400 individuals known to be living with HIV in Malta. “First the government is silent and does nothing to destroy the stigma on HIV sufferers, and then out of nowhere, we’re going to tell all HIV people, hundreds of them, to stay at home because of the pandemic. HIV persons still have to get their medicine every month from Mater Dei Hospital. I get testosterone – but I go to the pharmacy of my choice, I don’t need to go to Mater Dei every month. Now with the coronavirus, the situation has gotten worse.”

Persons who want to assist the MGRM by providing temporary accommodation during the pandemic can fill out the form at https://bit.ly/2KylFwN