The broader Atlanta community celebrated the grand opening of the TS Madison Starter House, a new Sisterhood Alliance for Freedom and Equality (SAFE) reentry home for formerly incarcerated transgender women. The new facility will welcome up to five women returning to the community following their incarceration.
“This new home will be a space where trans people can receive different kinds of support without fear of retraumatization or harassment, spaces where processing and healing from trauma becomes possible,” said Ts Madison, American Reality Television Personality and Actress. “As someone who has personally experienced the pain of rejection and the struggle for survival, I know how life-changing it is to have a safe place to go home to. With this new home, we are letting Black trans women know they are not alone, they are not forgotten, and they are worthy of every opportunity to heal and thrive.”
The Ts Madison Starter House is a member of A New Way of Life’s SAFE Housing Network, an international collective of 30+ organizations dedicated to offering reentry services to formerly incarcerated women. The SAFE Housing Network is working to decarcerate the US by bringing people home to stay, helping them to heal from the trauma of incarceration, and empowering them to lead in the fight to end mass incarceration. Since opening its first homes in 2019, the SAFE Housing Network has housed more than 700 formerly incarcerated people. The Network has also provided other reentry services to nearly 12,000 formerly incarcerated people since 2019.
“Black trans women are among the most marginalized and criminalized people in our society,” said Susan Burton, founder of A New Way of Life, CNN Hero, and a 2023 NBC News Inspiring America honoree. “The escalating vitriol against the trans community has emboldened acts of hate and discrimination across the country. Trans people everywhere are less safe today, and we need local government and law enforcement to take steps to safeguard the safety of the occupants of this home. By creating a space where they are not just seen but supported, not just housed but honored, we are dismantling a system that has failed them for far too long.”
The TS Madison Starter House is a groundbreaking housing and empowerment initiative led by media mogul and community advocate TS Madison. Rooted in her lived experience as a Black Trans woman who navigated homelessness and survival sex work, this visionary program represents a new standard of care—designed by and for Black Trans women. This program is made possible through a powerful partnership with NAESM, Inc., one of the oldest Black-led HIV/AIDS service organizations in the South. With over three decades of service, NAESM’s infrastructure, expertise, and deep community trust form the operational foundation of the Starter House, ensuring it is not only visionary—but viable, trauma-informed, and sustainable.
The SAFE Housing Network relies on the reentry housing model employed by A New Way Of Life. Lack of access to housing is a primary driver of recidivism. While recidivism rates across the country hover around 65%, there is a recidivism rate of just 6% among residents of A New Way Of Life’s homes. Every year, almost 2.5 million women are released from jails and prisons, facing countless barriers to reentry. Reentry housing is desperately needed across America, with 2.5 million women are released from jails and prisons facing countless barriers to reentry. Lack of access to housing is a primary driver of recidivism.
Formerly incarcerated LGBTQ+ individuals face compounded challenges as their unique healthcare needs and experiences of discrimination intersect with existing barriers to reentry, making it even more difficult to rebuild their lives after incarceration. Sexual minorities are incarcerated at a rate three times higher than that of the US adult population, and transgender people are also incarcerated at disproportionate rates, with Black transgender women incarcerated at approximately 10 times the rate of the general population incarceration rate.
“At NAESM, we’ve spent decades on the frontlines of HIV prevention and care in the Black LGBTQ+ community,” said Dr. Quamina, Executive Director of NAESM, Inc. “This home will be a critical intersection of reentry support and HIV care—ensuring that Black trans women returning from incarceration aren’t just housed, but also have access to the affirming, life-saving healthcare they deserve.”
Providing support to formerly incarcerated individuals as they return to their communities is essential for meeting basic needs and lowering the risk of recidivism. Yet for LGBTQ+ people, particularly those living with HIV, many existing reentry policies and programs remain out of reach or worse, perpetuate harm through exclusion, stigma, or lack of cultural competency. Across the country, trans people experience disproportionate rates of housing instability, a trend rooted in society’s vilification of trans people. Black trans people experience this discrimination most acutely (PDF), with an unemployment rate of 20 percent (four times that of the general population) and a poverty rate of 38 percent (three times that of the general population).