CPOY

Award of Excellence: (re)Becoming Mohagany

Mohagany Foster was released from New Hanover Correctional Center in Wilmington, N.C. on November 8, 2022 after a year-long sentence. As a trans woman, the county housed her in a men’s facility against her wishes. Finally released, Mohagany is now working toward reclaiming her female identity in the real world. She first found housing in northern Durham through the LGBTQ+ Center until they decided they couldn't support her anymore. Without the Center, she now lives in a hotel and has a part-time job with the Orange County Rape Crisis Center as a response caller. However, with an inconsistent paycheck, she works to scrape together her room fee every single day, always unsure if she'll have to resume life on the streets.

Caption
Slide 9 of 12
9
April 26, 2023

Mohagany stands outside her new temporary home at a Days Inn hotel. To stay there, she had to crowdsource money from donors to pay her hotel bill every day before 11a.m. Fearing re-entry into the system, Mohagany wasn’t sure how to maintain this life without the Center’s help. A few of her previous records were results of petty thievery from stores due to homelessness and she was worried she’d fall back into her old ways without help.

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