Transgender and Rainbow Housing NZ

Transgender and Rainbow Housing NZ

We run the national transgender housing support service. This includes support with accessing emergency housing, transitional housing, and council housing. It also includes the national LGBTQI+ Rainbow Housing NZ group online. Our rainbow housing network was established in 2017, and has over 2,800 members in 2021.

If you need support with emergency housing, contact us to discuss your situation and the options available to you in your area.

If you’re looking for a room in an established transgender-friendly home, or if you have a room to offer in yours, visit Rainbow Housing NZ by clicking the image below.

Button: link to Rainbow Housing NZ

Help transgender people find housing

If you would like to help us support transgender people to find safe housing, you can set up an easy monthly donation using the buttons below, or visit our donations page for more options.

Transgender housing and homelessness research

You can find New Zealand based research on transgender people and housing by visiting our research page at the link below.

2020-2021 Annual Report

2020-2021 Annual Report

Check out some key activities we did in 2020 below, or see our 2020 Annual Report for all the juicy details.

Our Core priority areas for 2020


1. Wrap around support.
2. Healthcare.
3. Housing.
4. Identity Documents.
5. Connectedness.

Despite the global pandemic, we had a very successful year across all five of these areas.

Icon of a person with a speech bubble.

We provided 1:1 peer support over 1,300 times, and there were over 500 visits to our Wellington drop in centre. Our website was visited over 61,000 times with 118,000 views.

Icon of two hands holding a heart with a medical cross in it.

We made over 4,100 health referrals, and received over 500 referrals from healthcare providers across 9 DHBs. We held a 3DHB community update, and produced 2 health resources.

Icon of a house.

Our Rainbow Housing NZ group grew to 2,600+ members, we met with the UN Special Rapporteur on Housing, and we published a housing report from our research into homelessness and housing instability in Wellington. We sent Counting Ourselves to key figures at the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development – which then named trans people as a priority group.

Icon of an identity card.

Our guide to birth certificate sex marker updates was read over 1,400 times, and we assisted a number of people in making applications. We were also on the BDMRR working group for the Minister of Internal Affairs.

Icon of a heart inside a speech bubble.

We facilitated connectedness for 1,700 trans people, whānau, and supporters in our online Transgender and Intersex NZ group, we held or significantly participated in 15 community events, our “trans 101” resource was read more than 27,000 times, and our parents resource was read more than 300 times.