Resources for transgender people in OC are scarce, so this activist started a group to change that

Khloe Rios-Wyatt broke new ground nearly five years ago when she co-founded Alianza Translatinx , the first trans-led organization in Orange County that's dedicated to helping transgender people with resources relating to housing, mental health support, immigration and other services.

Recently, LAist asked her to tell us about the organization, its goals, and a report it released this summer on the current challenges facing the LGBTQIA+ community in Orange County, including housing injustice.

How it all began

Even at the age of 5, Khloe Rios-Wyatt knew that she didn’t identify with the gender she was assigned at birth and would tell her parents she was a girl. The response? Love and acceptance.

That love and acceptance helped her become the first person in her family to head off to college, Cal State Fullerton

She said she suffered some bullying from classmates there, but it wasn’t until entering the workforce that she realized how hard life could be for someone who is transgender. Four months after Rios-Wyatt started working at a marketing agency in Newport Beach, she says she lost the job when her employer cited discrepancies in her employment documentation compared to her driver’s license, Social Security and immigration documents — which all carried her dead name. To compound matters, she was also a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) permit holder at the time. To change all these documents and address her immigration status would have required the costly services of an attorney.

When she hit rock bottom

Rios-Wyatt says she plummeted into depression. Unemployed, she didn’t know where to turn to for help. Her mission now is to make sure others have a support system for some of the challenges she faced.

“At the time I was not informed,” she said. “I didn't have the knowledge that I have now.”

Rios-Wyatt would eventually begin working at a nonprofit in Los Angeles with other trans people, an experience that made her realize she was not the only one confronted with barriers to finding work, especially when immigration issues are also involved. And so, at the beginning of the pandemic, she began the grassroots effort to co-found Alianza Translatinx , the first trans-led organization in Orange County.

A mission is born

Alianza — “alliance” in Spanish — acts as a hub connecting people in Orange County's trans community with resources relating to housing, mental health support, immigration assistance and other services.

“I just wanted to be of more value going into my community and educating them, helping them update their documents, and making sure that they didn't go through the same thing that I went through,” Rios-Wyatt said.

Part of that mission is figuring out what people need.

That led to a first-of-its-kind reports by Alianza Translatinx, which made headlines with its survey of the trans community revealing the unique challenges they face and the lack of targeted resources. The results in the report titled "We Deserve Housing Justice" revealed that 44% of respondents in Orange County said they struggled to make a living, earning less than $10,000 annually. And over 60% of them said they had experienced discrimination based on their gender.

This discrimination, they say, is their biggest barrier to higher paying jobs, which makes it harder to find secure housing.

“We want this report to help inform other housing providers in the area how to better provide services, housing services for trans people and really improve the way that services are currently being delivered to transgender, gender non-conforming and intersex people in Orange County,” Rios-Wyatt said.

She added that Alianza Translatinx exists to help people get out of that cycle of despair. One of those who says she has been helped is Lucia Marlene Garcia.

Helping with the basics — such as housing

Garcia arrived from Tijuana two years ago, crossing the border with several friends. She eventually came to Santa Ana, staying at a hotel as she tried to find employment and housing.

She found part-time work at beauty salons and cleaning houses, but she's had trouble finding a full-time job, and only recently got her work visa. Housing has been an even bigger problem. Garcia said she visited around 60 apartments and homes over seven months, searching for an affordable room to rent so she could leave the hotel behind. (She was paying $2,000 a month there, and had to eat out for all of her meals.)

Garcia's lack of credit and job history have been major obstacles to finding a place. But sometimes, she said, the rental seemed like a done deal until she showed up in person. In one case, Garcia went to a house to meet a woman who had advertised a room for rent.

"When I got there, just seeing me and that I was a trans woman, she told me, 'No, I can't rent my room to you because I have little kids.' I mean, what does that have to do with anything?" Garcia recalled. "I felt very offended and very judged."

She is now staying with a friend, and working on becoming a licensed hair stylist while learning English and "getting a little more settled."

Alianza Translatinx connected Garcia with the Civic Center Barrio Housing Corp., which is helping Garcia in her search for permanent housing of her own. Garcia said she also relies on the Civic Center Barrio's food bank.

How services have grown

Alianza Translatinx initially started by preparing and then distributing hot meals to community members during the pandemic, Rios-Wyatt said. But people would also reach out with questions about name changes and where they could find information about medical care and hormone replacement therapy.

“It just became this community chain of passing on information and then more and more people started coming to us to ask for more resources,” Rios-Wyatt said.

Now, the organization works like a hub connecting community members with other organizations in Orange County. Alianza recently partnered with UC Irvine Health to provide medical services, such as hormone replacement therapy and laser hair removal. They have also created partnerships with organizations like CalOptima Health and local nonprofits to provide housing assistance, rental stipends and transportation reimbursements.

Danielle Cameron, a director at CalOptima Health, said Alianza provides "important advocacy for and support to Orange County’s Transgender, gender-diverse and intersex (TGI) community" and noted that "the TGI community faces structural barriers and discrimination when seeking essential health care, housing and accommodations."

"We are in the early stages of our partnership and are committed to the work ahead," Cameron added.

The jobs and housing challenge

In the wake of the survey responses, Rios-Wyatt created a housing case management program at Alianza Translatinx. It helps clients with services like trauma-informed housing management, where an individual’s experience is centered in case management, rent assistance vouchers and mental health access.

“We're speaking to politicians, to community leaders, at the state level and at the local level, to also include trans people in workforce development, to foster leadership and to invest in trans leadership,” Rios-Wyatt said. “We want this report to help inform other housing providers in the area how to better provide services, housing services for trans people and really improve the way that services are currently being delivered to transgender, gender nonconforming and intersex people in Orange County."

The key to making a difference

Rios-Wyatt may be at the helm of the organization, but she says its success is a shared victory.

"We just did the work and everything else just came to be what it is now. It has been a team effort. It hasn't just been me," Rios-Wyatt said. "This was built under my leadership, but I recognize that this was a team effort... Alianza Translatinx has become a cornerstone in the community because it's based in community."