Moment #21: July 15, 2013 - Trans Life Center opens

Photo by Kate Sosin.

Chicago House opened the doors to the TransLife Center, the nation’s first dedicated housing facility for transgender individuals, in the summer of 2013. The building’s first resident proudly cut the ribbon at the building’s opening ceremony. Operating out of the building that originally served as a hospice program for Chicago House clients in the late stages of complications due to HIV, the TLC’s rehabbed, refurbished facility would house and provide wraparound services to nine trans and gender nonconforming (TGNC) individuals. The TLC’s programming also operated an additional 30 units of housing for TGNC residents across the city.

Initially, the TransLife Care Program focused on serving transgender individuals living with HIV and later evolved into a program that serves any transgender individual regardless of HIV status by reducing barriers to HIV care and prevention, legal, and employment support. In 2016, Chicago House’s housing models and wrap-around services were growing and it was decided that, while the former hospice building turned TransLife Care Center was historic to the agency’s work and impactful in the community, it was time sell this building and evolve with the expanding needs in the HIV and broader LGBTQ+ communities. This decision would help fuel programmatic efforts and generate an increase in impact for years to come.

As the TransLife Care Program expanded and relocated to the organization’s central hub, it did so in partnership by offering its TransSafe program—a weekly “one-stop-shop” drop-in center on the city’s North and West Sides—to increase access to these life changing services for transgender individuals.