Plantation 9-1-1

According to court records, Taffe admitted to U.S. Secret Service Special Agent Christopher Hersey last month that she´d wired $140,000 in toll revenues to her Bank of America account. She denied taking the other $100,000, but bank records show otherwise. Maybe Taffe was using that fuzzy Halliburton math you hear so much about nowadays. No word yet on her sentence. No Room at the Inn

The voice on the other end of the line was desperate. Dana Garcia had reached rock bottom, but she was trying to hold onto her last shred of dignity. ¨I just refuse to prostitute myself again to pay for rent,¨ she said. Garcia is trying to put her life back together. Abuse, depression, prostitution, and cocaine use over the years have sent her bouncing through the system from shelters to jails to mental wards. She´s ready for a clean start if only her penis weren´t in the way.

Garcia, 56, has dressed as a woman for more than three decades. With the help of hormones, she has A-cup breasts. She wears a wig of black flowing tresses and a full face of makeup. Shimmery orange polish accents her long fingernails.

For years, Garcia lived the life of a party girl, being taken care of by rich men. But then things started to fall apart.

Broke and homeless now, Garcia needs a place to live. There are shelters for the homeless, but here´s the rub: They´re segmented into male and female residences. There´s no room designated for anyone who´s a little of both.

When Tailpipe met Garcia last month, she was staying at the Henderson Mental Health Center´s Crisis Stabilization Unit, where she had been placed under observation because of suicidal thoughts. By then, counselors wanted to release her to a homeless shelter, where she´d have to dress as a man a big step that only added to Garcia´s anguish.

Tailpipe called to speak with her case manager, Athera Pascascio. But before Pascascio could talk, she said, she´d need written consent from Garcia. She assured the ´Pipe that Garcia would not be leaving that day. A few hours later, Pascascio had clocked out. And Garcia was gone.

The next day, Garcia called again, this time from a public phone. She was never presented with a waiver so that Pascascio could discuss the case with Tailpipe, she said. ¨They rushed me out of there,¨ Garcia recounts. ¨They gave me ten minutes to pack my shit.¨ Henderson officials wouldn´t comment.

Tiffany Arieagus, a prevention counselor at HIV/AIDS service organization Care Resource, says many share Garcia´s dilemma. Arieagus says there are probably about 5,000 transgender individuals living in Broward County. When families and communities reject their gender identities, it´s easy for those folks to end up on the street like the group of ¨girls¨ Arieagus once met who were living behind a Burger King on Oakland Park Boulevard.

¨We have no homeless shelters that do anything for transgender people,¨ Arieagus says. ¨Of all the spaces they provide, they should make a space so that people are free to be who they are. They make rooms and bathrooms for women, and they do it for men, so why not transgender? They´re people too.¨

Allan Dupuis, program director at Fort Lauderdale Hospital´s Pride Institute, which provides mental health and chemical-dependency treatment for the GLBT community, says the bigger problem is a general lack of funding for social services. Garcia was hoping to get one of the ten beds at Pride, where she anticipated gay-friendly services. But she ended up at heedless Henderson.

Dupuis suggests that Garcia ¨go undercover for a little bit¨ and take the offer of three hots and a cot at a homeless shelter. ¨At various points in our lives, we all have to conform to get what we need,¨ Dupuis says. ¨Until she gets the means, at least she´s got a roof over her head and food in her belly.¨

Stanley Stubbs, who manages the BEDS helpline for Broward´s Coalition to End Homelessness, is familiar with Garcia, whom he referred to as a man. ¨I wish we could help him, but he´s insisted that he will not modify his dress,¨ Stubbs says. ¨And you can imagine that would be a problem for his safety if he were placed in an open-bay shelter.¨

The last Tailpipe heard from Garcia, she was staying with some ¨acquaintances¨ who were using drugs.

¨I can´t stay here,¨ she whispered into the phone. ¨They´ll try to pimp me.¨