How Youth Providers Like Casa Ruby are Addressing Far More than Homelessness
I have listened to a lot of sad, I mean really sad stories working with the most vulnerable residents in the District, but I’d never lost my composure in front of a reporter until I met “Amora.” At the tender age of 21, Amora is a transgender woman and a survivor of eleven years of human trafficking. Born in eastern Los Angeles at the end of an era of widespread crack cocaine use, Amora’s father sold her for some of the drug when she was only ten years old.
Amora’s Story
For the next decade, Amora would be sold across more than five state lines or jurisdictions from one hand to the next for one sordid reason or another. For a time, after many attempts to escape, she thought the rest of her life would be lived in such misery, “I started to think I wasn’t worthy of a normal, happy life. That maybe the people who judged me and looked down on me because I’m transgender were right about me being some kind of freak,” Amora confessed in an interview with NBC 4 reporter Mark Segraves recently.
If interested in learning more about Amora’s journey, you may view that interview here. What the interview doesn’t capture fully, and what’s most inspiring about Amora’s story is her newly developed connection with Casa Ruby founder and Executive Director, Ruby Corado. Like Amora, Corado is also transgender, and survived many years of sexual assault before starting the organization that’s offering a safe haven for hundreds of LGBTQ youth in the District.
“I finally have one person who I know loves me and will always be there for me no matter what and that’s Ruby. She’s not even Ruby anymore, she’s Mom now. The kind I’ve always wanted and needed,” gushed Amora when the cameras stopped rolling.
The House that Ruby Built
Casa Ruby is the only bilingual, multicultural LGBTQ organization providing services and programs to the most vulnerable in the LGBTQ community. The Casa Ruby Drop Inn-Community Center located in Washington, DC, is open 6 days a week, Monday-Saturday from 12–8 pm. Here, the most vulnerable in the District’s LGBTQ community are provided a safe place to be.
Staff and volunteers work together to offer and coordinate human services for more than 150 clients per week including: hot meals, clothing, computer access, support groups and mentoring, case management, emergency housing, and legal services. A little over a year ago, Ruby also opened two more houses as part of her growing network. One, a transitional home for gay and transgender homeless youth; the other is a shelter for LGBTQ adults experiencing homelessness. Many transgender people say they have a difficult time staying in homeless shelters, which are usually designated for either men or women.
Last year, the District began the implementation of the End Youth Homelessness Amendment Act provisions, which includes $1.3 million annually to support additional shelter and transitional housing beds, drop-in centers, street outreach, and the youth census. DHS awarded grants in September of last year to create 20 new transitional housing beds and 6 new crisis beds for youths aged 18–24. Casa Ruby, one of the grant recipients, was able to increase capacity to support 6 additional crisis beds. To learn more about Casa Ruby, or to make a donation to the organization, please visit: http://www.casaruby.org/.