Q-Blok

LGBT Flyer

According to the recently released National Recommended Best Practices for Serving LGBT Homeless Youth developed by the National Alliance to End Homelessness, Lambda Legal, the National Network for Youth, and the National Lesbian Rights Center, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth are clearly overrepresented within the overall homeless population. Their report states:

According to a growing body of research and study, a conservative estimate is that one out of every five homeless youth (20 percent) is LGBT-identified. This is greatly disproportionate to the estimated percentage of LGBT youth in the general population which is somewhere between 4 and 10 percent. Research indicates that each year, hundreds of thousands of LGBT youth will experience homelessness. Most LGBT youth become homeless because of family abuse, neglect, or conflict over their identity. Many homeless LGBT youth were kicked out of their homes while others ran from foster and group homes because they were mistreated or harassed.

LGBT youth are not only overrepresented in homeless youth populations, but reports indicate that while living on the streets, LGBT youth are at great risk of physical and sexual exploitation—at the hands of adults, police, and other youth. For example, one study concluded that LGBT homeless youth experience an average of 7.4 more acts of sexual violence toward them than their heterosexual peers. Transgender youth in particular are often harassed, assaulted, and arrested by police because of their gender presentation. Another study found that LGBT youth may have twice the rates of sexual victimization on the streets as non-LGBT homeless youth, and LGBT youth report double the rates of sexual abuse before age 12. In addition, LGBT homeless youth are more likely to report being asked by someone on the streets to exchange sex for money, food, drugs, shelter, and clothing than heterosexual homeless youth. Unfortunately, many LGBT homeless youth resort to trading sex to meet their basic needs.

Further, just trying to survive in street environments or with transitory and unstable housing can increase mental health problems and disabilities. One study found that lesbian homeless youth are more likely to have post-traumatic stress syndrome, conduct disorders, and alcohol and substance abuse problems than heterosexual homeless young women, and gay homeless young men are more likely to meet criteria for major depressive episodes. Finally, LGBT homeless youth are also more likely to attempt suicide (62 percent) than their heterosexual homeless peers (29 percent).

Unfortunately, some LGBT homeless youth have experienced discriminatory practices and policies when trying to access homeless youth services. Others have been assaulted by peers based on their sexual orientation or gender identity while participating in programs designed to help homeless youth stabilize their lives. Without access to the residential stability, nurturance, and opportunities for positive youth development provided by homeless youth service providers, LGBT homeless youth are susceptible to further challenges as adults and continued violence and exploitation on the streets, and are at great risk of entering the juvenile or criminal justice system.

Milwaukee is not unique in this respect and experiences similar issues with regard to its LGBT young people. Following the research and feasibility surveying completed in December of 2007 through a William Stark Jones Foundation award of $2,000 to Avenues for Homeless Youth (a nonprofit organization which runs the GLBT Host Home program in Minneapolis) and conducted by Jacqueline White, a Minneapolis-based independent consultant on LGBT youth issues, a group of local organizational representatives was gathered by the Cream City Foundation to initiate a Milwaukee-based response to the ongoing need for safe and supportive independent housing resources for our community’s LGBT young people. After nearly two years of planning and organizing, four local youth-serving nonprofits – Pathfinders, the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center, Children’s Service Society of WI (note: Children’s Service Society recently ended their work in the collaborative, and St. Aemillian-Lakeside has assumed an active role in this collaboration beginning in September 2009), and Lad Lake - formed a Work Group to delineate and design a model project that would achieve a number of key priorities:

1. Focus on the housing needs of LGBT-identified young people ages 18-25 who are entering adulthood ill-equipped to achieve successful independence and self-sufficiency due to their histories of running away, homelessness, family rejection and abandonment, and societal prejudice, discrimination, and marginalization due to their sexual orientation and/or gender identity.
2. Address the need for family support and guidance by actively recruiting and engaging LGBT-identified adult community members willing to “sponsor” a young person and provide to these youth a positive, affirming, and healthy “family” able to offer support, encouragement, and guidance as they work to achieve identified milestones necessary for becoming successful young adults.
3. Educate the broader community as to the nature and extent of the problems experienced by LGBT-identified young adults specific to exploitation, homelessness, family rejection, and the ongoing and pervasive societal discrimination and hate-based violence experienced by LGBT young people.
4. Monitor young people’s progress on key outcomes and milestones identified as necessary prerequisites for their becoming successful independent adults.