Once homeless, he’s why trans men of color will soon get their own housing program in D.C. — The Washington Post

On the same day I met Williams, I spoke with 12-year-old Laton Pfeifer Hicks, whose Maryland community of Woodmoor has a group of residents dedicated to making the neighborhood more inclusive. This year, for the first time, the neighborhood raised a pride flag on the community’s flagpole and held a pride parade. Laton, who identifies as LGBTQ and uses the pronouns they and them, spoke at both events.

“In an ideal world, Pride Month would not need to exist,” Laton tells me when we talk. “People who are part of the LGBTQ community would be treated as everyone else.”

The seventh-grader describes feeling free from a young age to discuss gender and sexuality but also recognizes not every family is supportive, not every neighborhood is embracing.

“We need to remind people that the fight is not over,” Laton says. “It’s still very much ongoing. We need to persist because these are human lives and human rights we’re fighting for.”

To hear the Maryland preteen talk is to feel hopeful about what can happen when people are accepted, no matter their gender or sexuality or religion or weight or disability (add whatever descriptor you want to that list). But to only bask in the inspiring examples is to ignore that within the LGBTQ community, there remains economic, geographic and racial divides that can make the difference between sleeping safely in a familiar bed and begging for borrowed space.

Neighborhood residents and friends gather ahead of the first Woodmoor Pride parade on June 6. (Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post)

June Crenshaw sees those who fall into the latter category. She is the executive director of the Wanda Alston Foundation, which has long provided housing to at-risk LGBTQ youth in the District.

Crenshaw credits Williams, who serves as the operations director for the organization, with seeing the need for housing and programming that focuses specifically on transgender men of color in the city. She describes the system that exists as not working for them and too often leaving them out of conversations, even when those conversations are about them.

The hope for the new housing, she says, is that it will allow the men to address their mental health needs and other challenges and leave connected to a job, a support system and a community, so they can eventually find and afford their own homes.

The organization has so far secured two apartments and is looking through applications to decide who gets them. Eight applications already have come in and more are expected. The staff hopes to choose two people by the end of the month.

“This is a pilot program,” Crenshaw says. “It’s starting small, but our hope is to expand it. The need is there, and we’re hoping that we will be able to expand this and provide long-term programming around it.”

Read more

Speaking Out to End LGBTQ Youth Homelessness — Human Rights Campaign

Every morning, thousands of LGBTQ youth wake up and begin their day without knowing where they will go to sleep that night.

Post submitted by June Crenshaw. Crenshaw is currently the Executive Director of the Wanda Alston Foundation, a transition housing program serving homeless LGBTQ people ages 16-24 in Washington, D.C. She also works as a business consultant for Coventry Health Care and has been on the D.C. Mayor's Advisory Board for LGBTQ Affairs since 2006.

On any given night in Washington, D.C., on the streets of the Nation's Capital, there are 200 to 300 LGBTQ homeless youth sleeping on sidewalks and weather grates and under bridges and overpasses. Despite the bone-chilling cold of winter and the suffocating summer nights, these young people are attempting to survive the overwhelming odds of the elements in a city that allocates only 75 beds to LGBTQ homeless youth. These youth are already facing heartbreaking marginalization, rejection and trauma solely because of their gender identity and sexual orientation. For over a decade, the Wanda Alston Foundation has been providing shelter and supporting LGBTQ youth ages 16 to 24 who are experiencing homelessness. In my four years of leading this organization, which provides life-saving and transformative services, I have never been more concerned about the future of our young people with the Trump-Pence administration proposing federal regulations to intentionally enable discrimination against LGBTQ youth in need and other vulnerable communities in federally funded programs.

Last month, the White House proposed nine federal regulations through federal agencies across the federal government that would permit federally funded programs to turn away LGBTQ people, women, religious minorities and other marginalized communities if they believe serving those groups--in the most basic of humane ways—goes against the program's religious or personal beliefs. This is a part of a three-year effort by the Trump-Pence administration to implement a license to discriminate on the supposed basis of religious freedom, despite failing to illustrate how religious beliefs are under attack by ensuring young people of all backgrounds have shelter.

Every morning, thousands of LGBTQ youth wake up and begin their day without knowing where they will go to sleep that night. Persistent levels of family rejection, bullying and discrimination and targeting at school contribute to unconscionable rates of homelessness and housing insecurity. Studies have found that as many as 40% of youth living on the streets or facing housing insecurity identify as LGBTQ. Systemic discrimination in employment, education and housing also increase the likelihood that these youth will remain homeless upon adulthood and therefore reliant on government programs. Transgender individuals face even higher rates of homelessness and poverty and are at even greater risk of experiencing violence either on the street or in a shelter. 

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 non-conforming individuals.

The consequences of homelessness, particularly for LGBTQ youth, are far-reaching and can last a lifetime. Homelessness is harmful to mental and physical health and youth who are homeless are at an increased risk for sexual abuse and exploitation, chemical and alcohol dependency, social stigma and discrimination. These youth also experience lower levels of long-term educational attainment—placing them at an even greater disadvantage when they enter the job market. Forced to navigate young adulthood without critical family and social safety nets results in catastrophic consequences for economic stability, educational attainment and life expectancy.

Federally funded social service organizations provide critical resources and care for these youth when they are at their most vulnerable. The children and youth seeking help from these federally funded programs should be able to trust that they will be welcoming, culturally competent and client-centered. These proposed regulations will further empower providers to refuse to adequately serve LGBTQ youth and will sanction harmful discrimination against youth in care, seeking shelter services, and prospective foster and adoptive parents. 

No LGBTQ youth should be refused taxpayer-funded assistance. No LGBTQ youth should be forced to compromise their identity or their own religious belief in order to receive taxpayer-funded services. Our LGBTQ youth, who are experiencing homelessness, have no one else to speak up for them if we do no choose to take a stand and demand from the federal government that these regulations are rejected and non-discrimination protections be put in place to ensure no young person is turned away from critical, life-saving services funded by taxpayers. Our humanity and integrity are at stake in this fight and we must not remain silent.

Read More

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.

Read more

Incremental Activism: GLAA celebrates 45 years — Metro Weekly

As it does every year, GLAA will mark its anniversary celebration by bestowing Distinguished Service Awards on individuals and groups who have helped advance LGBT rights and served the wider LGBT community in the D.C. area. This year’s honorees include Mónica Palacio, director of the D.C. Office of Human Rights (OHR); June Crenshaw, the chair of the Board of the Rainbow Response Coalition, which combats LGBT intimate partner violence, and the recently named interim director of the Wanda Alston Foundation, which provides housing and support for LGBT homeless youth; and Sterling Washington, the former director of the Office of GLBT Affairs under the administration of Mayor Vincent Gray.

Read more