Congress Must Act To Protect Homeless LGBT Youth
Social services to support this large segment of the homeless youth population are sorely lacking.
2015 was a historic year for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community in the United States. The Department of Defense updated the Military Equal Opportunity Policy to ensure that no one could be discriminated against based on sexual orientation. Former athlete and TV personality Caitlyn Jenner announced she is a woman during an ABC interview with Diane Sawyer. And the U.S. Supreme Court finally came to its senses and legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.
Yet despite all this progress, LGBT people continue to face life-threatening issues such as violence, extreme poverty and homelessness.
Those hardest hit in our communities are often times our most vulnerable members. Multiple studies show that 40 percent of homeless youth are LGBT. More often than not, LGBT youth face rejection from their family, communities and peers for being who they are, which in turn can lead to depression and self-destructive behaviors.
During a recent visit to My Friend’s Place, a privately funded non-profit organization that works closely with homeless LGBT youth, development director Jeff Katz described to me the basic profile of youth that visit the center.
“Most of our youth are ages 12 to 25. Our numbers are aligned with national averages, meaning that 40 percent of our youth identify as LGBT. Many of them are here because an adult has failed them in their lives,” he said.
With nearly 4,000 young homeless people on the streets of Los Angeles every year, My Friend’s Place does their part by serving more than 1,400 individual youth a year at their Hollywood facility.
“We offer a variety of health and education services, from STI and HIV testing to individual and family counseling,” Katz said. “We also provide our youth with a range of possibilities in the arts such as acting workshops, a circus program, the chance to play a musical instrument.”
More importantly, however, My Friend’s Place strives to find permanent solutions for young homeless individuals. The center not only connects its young adults to employers such as Target and UPS, but it also supports its youth with clothing, toiletries and the emotional reassurance they may need once they are ready to apply for transitional housing. The latter is especially important for LGBT youth who are subject to overt discrimination when trying to secure affordable housing.
Every day, organizations like My Friend’s Place help better the lives of homeless LGBT individuals. Nonetheless, if we analyze the situation of homeless youth at-large, it becomes clear that there is still much work to be done.
In 2013, the number of homeless children in the United States surged by 8 percent to nearly 2.5 million, according to a report published by the National Center on Homelessness. From a societal standpoint, these statistics are humiliating to say the least. How is it that a nation with a GDP of $16.8 trillion has the developed world’s second highest rate of child poverty?
In order to improve the lives of millions of homeless youth, systemic changes will need to be made. When a disproportionate number of homeless youth are LGBT, there is no excuse for non-inclusive legislation. As of now, Congress has yet to authorize the Runaway and Homeless Youth and Trafficking Prevention Act (RHYTPA), which would prevent shelters and outreach programs from discriminating against youth based on their sexual orientation or gender identity, as well as their race, color, religion, national origin, sex, or disability.
Apart from the inclusion of LGBT homeless youth in our laws, the federal government needs to do more financially to respond to this problem. Currently, less than five percent of the budget for homeless assistance programs, $195 million of the approximately $4.2 billion the government spends, goes to homeless children and youth. Moreover, of the $44 billion the federal government spends on rental assistance and affordable housing, only one percent of it, $44 million, goes to housing assistance for homeless youth.
What’s worse is that since RHYTPA has yet to pass Congress, many providers are being awarded funds without a mandate that requires them to not discriminate based on sexual orientation and gender identity. In the upcoming years, the federal government should focus on improving the services and treatment homeless LGBT youth receive. Only then will we see significant reductions in the overall amount of homeless youth.
