Growing up in Mississippi, Janett’s creativity guided her; she spent so much time experimenting, inventing, and building on ideas. She brought that passion with her when she moved to Memphis a few years before My Sistah’s House became a reality. While finding her place in the city, she met Kayla Gore, who introduced her to local support groups that served Trans and Gender Nonconforming individuals. As a deeply empathetic person with a heart for those around her, Janett was one of the first to offer support when My Sistah’s House opened its first small-scale shelter out of Kayla’s home.
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A New Home, A New Hope: Meet Janett
January 17, 2025
A New Home, A New Hope
Meet Janett, a long time advocate for My Sistah’s House and one of our residents that’s made the switch from transitional housing to permanent housing
through our work on #MSHTinyHomes. For years, Janett has spent quite a lot of her free time helping us as a volunteer, supporting us on social media and during our shelter period, and sharing her personal story with My Sistah’s House in Memphis. She’s truly a bright light for our team here, and her passion for helping people in need keeps us focused on our mission. To put it simply, Janett is much more than a beloved MSH resident - she’s a constant inspiration to us.
This was long before the #MSHTinyHomes project came alive, and Janett’s support in those early days made an enormous difference, as she helped to serve hot meals, maintain the shelter, and spent countless hours calling through ads to find escorts who had been waiting for someone like Janett to reach out and offer support. In those days, Janett shares that this work “felt like a favor to a friend”, and that perspective permeates everything she does; she always sees her contributions to the Memphis community as a natural next step, despite how enormous those contributions often are.
Janett’s Next Chapter
The time and love that Janett dedicates to My Sistah’s House would be stunning on its own, but becomes even more astonishing when you learn about her story. After struggling for years with kidney function, Janett had a kidney transplant that was initially successful, but later failed, requiring her to go back to dialysis treatments four times a week. This is a huge time commitment, in addition to bringing the enormous physical toll of weekly treatments.
About a year and a half ago, Janett joined us as a resident in our transitional housing program, utilizing the housing services that she had already spent so much time giving towards during a difficult time in her life. Having her own space, even though it was just a studio apartment at first, was transformative, allowing her to build her own social life outside of her family, and to conduct her dialysis treatments at home.
Recently, Janett moved into one of our beautiful & brand new tiny homes, where she’s been enjoying her permanent housing and having her own space. To her, the home means safety, security, and comfort. It gives her confidence to lean on her own independence, knowing that this home is undeniably hers. Since moving in, she’s adopted two beautiful cats, Bynx and Isabella, and they’ve become an inseparable part of her new home.
After years of supporting our work in Memphis, Janett needs OUR support now more than ever; she’s been on a waiting list for a new kidney transplant in both Tennessee and Mississippi for more than a year now. The reality of healthcare access for TNGC people in America is still far behind the standards for cisgender individuals,
with over 70% of transgender people experiencing stigma and adverse interactions with health care providers.
Because we believe at the core of our work that Trans people are beautiful, strong, and deserving of every opportunity, we’re rallying beside Janett to find a donor so that she can get the lifesaving transplant she needs. Janett has an O+ blood type, so she needs a donor with the same type - and to have the best possible chance of success, she needs a transplant from a living donor. The reality of our healthcare system means that we can’t predict how long Janett may have to wait for the state to identify a donor, and she deserves so much more than that uncertainty.
Please share this story with your own community to help us find Janett’s lifesaving donor.
In the heart of Memphis, a groundbreaking housing initiative is transforming lives through innovative solutions to urban living. The experience of Kamora Byrd, 38, has a unique story to share about this community-centered housing approach as the first recipient of the Tiny House project. Originally from Jackson, Mississippi, Kamora moved to Memphis at 16, eventually considering the city her true home. " I was born in Jackson, but I was raised in Memphis ," she explains. Like many residents who have faced housing insecurity, Kamora previously lived in an apartment where she encountered challenges, including restrictions and extra costs related to having a pet.
The Department of Justice's initiative to develop safer, more informed law enforcement interactions with transgender individuals, “Engaging and Building Relationships with Transgender Communities”, has been abruptly terminated, marking an immediate setback for police reform and community safety. Within days of My Sistah’s House being notified of this termination, all mentions of the program and its supporting materials were scrapped from the DOJ website. This program, which engaged expert trainers like Kayla Gore of My Sistah's House, represented a vital step toward addressing documented patterns of over-policing and discriminatory practices affecting transgender individuals, particularly Black trans women. The program's elimination arrives at a particularly critical moment for Memphis and similar communities where DOJ investigations have recently identified systemic issues in policing practices. The training initiative was positioned to serve as a crucial bridge between law enforcement agencies and transgender residents, offering evidence-based protocols for respectful, constitutional interactions. Key Program Elements Now Lost Include: Specialized training developed by subject matter experts from the Transgender community with lived experience Concrete protocols for ensuring dignified and lawful police interactions Direct pathways for implementing DOJ recommendations in cities under review Essential resources for addressing documented patterns of false arrests and detainment The complete removal of these materials from DOJ platforms represents more than a policy shift – it eliminates vital resources that law enforcement agencies in progressive cities were actively seeking to improve community relations and ensure constitutional policing practices. In addition to the complete elimination of this program, the housing rights of transgender and gender nonconforming people are once again being threatened. Secretary Scott Turner has directed the department of Housing and Urban Development to stop enforcing the 2016 Equal Access rule that protected the TLGBQIA+ community from discrimination or intrusive questioning when seeking housing. It remains to be seen whether Congress will support this rollback, but we're ready to jump into action and advocate for our community as soon as more details become clear. We urge those concerned about these developments to: Write a letter expressing your concern to the department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). You can mail it directly to HUD at the address below, or mail it to us at My Sistah’s House, and we will compile comments to submit collectively. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development 451 7th Street S.W., Washington, DC 20410 2694 McGregor Avenue Memphis, TN 38127 Doc ument and report incidents of policing or housing discrimination Support local organizations continuing this vital work Stay informed about and resist additional policy rollbacks affecting transgender communities The sudden dismantling of this program represents a tangible setback for police reform and community safety. However, organizations like My Sistah's House remain committed to advancing the work of creating safer communities for all residents, particularly our most vulnerable neighbors.
Major Milestones, A Special Thank You, and Our Next Chapter
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Address: 2694 McGregor Avenue, Memphis, TN 38127
Phone: (901)352-1660
Email: kaylagore@mshmemphis.org
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