Helping LGBTQ Youths Facing Homelessness — U.S. News & World Report
When the Washington, D.C., officials conducted its homeless youth census in 2017 with the nonprofit Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness, they found nearly a third, or 31%, of the 394 unaccompanied homeless youths under the age of 24 identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer.
In her role as executive director of the Wanda Alston Foundation, a transition housing program serving homeless LGBTQ people ages 16 to 24 in Washington, June Crenshaw has seen firsthand how vulnerable queer youth are to homelessness, and how programs like hers can make a difference.
Homeless LGBTQ youths are more at-risk than other parts of the city's homeless population. "They become the target of hate crimes or bias crimes, they are more vulnerable to domestic violence and sexual assault, they are more vulnerable to drug use and sex work," she says. "Their vulnerability is much higher than their heterosexual counterparts."
In LGBTQ-focused programs, however, "sometimes these youths are seeing positive role models for the first time, and are able to congregate with other individuals that are like them, that have undergone the same journey," she explains. "And that's empowering, to connect with others that are experiencing something similar, and to be supported, and to support folks."
In an interview with U.S. News, she discusses the services Wanda Alston and other groups provide, why queer youth are more likely to become homeless and the resources the nation's capital needs to help the homeless LGBTQ youth population.
"On any given night, there's probably 200 to 300 individuals that are actually sleeping on the streets, or couch surfing, or trading sex for a place to live," Crenshaw says. "And the city has roughly 75 beds committed to this population. So we know that there's a big disconnect right there."
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Tell me a little bit about Wanda Alston. What does the foundation do?
We've been in operation since 2008. So we're in our 11th year of our program, we provide 18 to 20 months of transitional or group housing, or shelter to LGBT youth between the ages of 18 and 24, who are experiencing homelessness. We provide full wraparound services. So as soon as they join our program, we connect them to medical services, behavioral health, and mental health services. We support them around life skills development, so we will help them with learning how to write a resume, interviewing for a job, how to shop for food, how to prepare a meal, how to balance a bank account -- those types of life skills that are typically learned in the home. We also connect them to some support around either finding or maintaining work, or staying in school or returning to school. So our goal is essentially to stabilize them.
Why do LGBTQ homeless youth need their own shelters and housing programs?
There is a lot of hostility and discrimination that occurs, and that is directed at the community overall. The LGBT community is oftentimes under attack by society. That really trickles down to programs, creating services that really don't meet our needs. And so there are a number of youth that come to our facility from other agencies and organizations where they have reported to us that they've been attacked, or abused, or refused services, or kicked out, or that even the staff has encouraged other homeless individuals to attack them. They've been bullied and ostracized, particularly if we are talking about some of the faith-based organizations that are required to provide services to everyone that comes through their door but oftentimes don't provide those services in a culturally competent or welcoming way. We find that the most vulnerable individuals are trans men and trans women of color, gender nonconforming individuals.
What have you noticed about intersectional groups, such as trans youth or LGBTQ people of color, within the homeless population?
I would say that 99.9% of our youth (at the Wanda Alston Foundation) are black and brown. I would say probably 60-plus-percent are trans or gender non-conforming. D.C. has some of the most progressive and protective laws for LGBT folks. But there are multiple lived experiences in the D.C. area, there are very affluent individuals. And then there's a population of LGBT youth and mostly youth of color that has not had the same access to services, access to education, access to jobs -- really, a path out of poverty. Racism plays into that, particularly when you are dealing with a minority population, and there are cultural challenges with that. So, to deal with a society that is racist, or a society that is sexist, or a society that is really capitalistic or homophobic or transphobic -- you've got all those 'isms' to navigate through, without a system of support. I think it creates tons of obstacles, both emotional and literal challenges to them being successful.
Does Washington, D.C., have a bigger homelessness problem among LGBTQ youths than other parts of the U.S.?
D.C. has the highest number of LGBTQ individuals per capita. So, higher than New York, higher than Houston, higher than (cities in) California. … There's this huge disconnect around what services we can or are providing, and the services that are needed. I think our numbers are pretty consistent with other large cities. But what feels different is that we have less services and support for our LGBTQ folks. This is an affluent area that has a high number of LGBT folks here. And so, the fact that we don't have a coordinated response to the homelessness epidemic is not OK.
What do you think Washington needs to do better to help queer homeless youth?
I think that there are a patchwork of programs, and a coordinated effort by the city is needed to make sure that every not just youth, but every person that's experiencing homelessness is taken through a system of connecting them to resources. A piece of it is happening, but we've got a big epidemic here. There needs to be more resources and infrastructure and programming. … There has to be support and education and training for families around acceptance and love. There needs to be conversation with faith-based organizations on how to deal with and how to be welcoming to their LGBT congregation. In the city, there's just a lot that needs to happen that isn't happening.
Why do so many LGBTQ youth end up homeless?
The highest percentage is from family rejection. And there are youth living in rural areas, or areas in the country where they don't feel safe or seen or supported, so they leave those areas to come to the city and then find themselves not able to compete with jobs or pay the rent, and then they become homeless as a result of that. And then, there are individuals born into circumstances of poverty, or born into circumstances where parents are incarcerated or can't take care of them. But there's also some youth that say, aged out of foster care and find themselves homeless, so I think it's, it's a number of different paths, but overwhelmingly (it's because) the youth are rejected by their family.
How as working at the Wanda Alston Foundation affected you?
When I first started, I thought it was really important to spend a lot of time at the facility to learn from the youth, to learn from the staff that was there. To get a perspective that was different from someone coming from the corporate world and didn't know a lot of the process. And I had many conversations with the youths, one of which still sort of sticks with me. It was a young person of color, a woman, who said to me, "I have never seen someone like you before. I didn't know my own possibilities, because it's never been modeled."
And so I say, visibility matters. And particularly vulnerable black and brown trans and non-conforming LGBT youths need to see people like that -- that helps them to visualize a future for themselves. And so I feel like I learned a lot more about the community, more about the vulnerability, more about what I can do to make one person's life a little better.
