Adrianne Cooke

Mrs. Aston

English 1301

October 1st 2015

LGBT Youth Homelessness in America

Homelessness affects the American youth population, primarily youths who affiliate

themselves with the LGBT community. In the United states, LGBT youth make up only five to

ten percent of the population, but twenty to forty percent of the homeless population[6]. An

astonishing amount of gay and transgender young people between the ages of 10 and 18 years of

age are found to be homeless. Each year, there is nearly 1.6 million to 2.8 million youths without

a home, and roughly 320,000 - 400,000 of those youths are a part of the LGBT community[6].

With every year we stand by and let them suffer, that number grows exponentially.

Some of the main reasons LGBT youth are homeless is because they neglect to finish

their education due to bullying and harassment from their peers. Harassment at school leads to

high dropout rates amongst LGBT youth, roughly eighty six percent of LGBT students have

reported being verbally harassed, and forty four percent of students report being physically

harassed at school due to their orientation in 2007[6]. LGBT youth face harassment and

discrimination everywhere, at home, on the streets, and even at school. Not having a safe space

to seek refuge causes many LGBT youths to feel unsafe in everyday situations. For example, in

2007, twenty two percent of LGBT students reported being physically attacked at school, sixty

percent said that they did not report the attacks because they thought nobody would care[6]. The

fact that they thought nobody would care if they got harassed or attacked is horrifying, no child
should feel unsafe while at school. Because of this, LGBT students are two times less likely to

finish high school and pursue a college education than other youth for fear of their life[5].

Although, most LGBT youths that find themselves homeless are kicked out of their homes by

their caretakers due to their sexuality or orientation, once on their own they seek out shelters to

find refuge in. This does not always go as planned, as most shelters refuse service, or provide

inadequate service to LGBT youth.

Many shelters in the U.S are funded by families or private organizations, or they hold the

right to turn away LGBT youth because it goes against their personal beliefs or those of their

company's owner, many shelters have been known to turn away many youths due solely to their

sexuality or gender identity[13]. Shelters have frequently been known to disregard someones

gender identity and place them in the wrong housings, which often puts them in dangerous

situations that cause them to feel unsafe, and could damage them both mentally and

physically[12].

Once inside the shelters, LGBT youth are often subjected to many forms of physical and

sexual violence. Corrective rape1 and genital mutilation2 are common forms of sexual violence

inflicted upon LGBT youth[5]. Physical violence includes abuse from people inside the shelter,

such as brutal beatings, starvation, and varying forms of mental abuse (such as manipulation3)[6].

Many youths choose to leave shelters for their own safety, and once they are on their own they

have to use all their resources in order to survive by themselves. In order to do so, LGBT youth

are often brought into a prostitution ring, or engage in what is known as survival sex4[14];

1
to turn the person heterosexual or to enforce conformity with gender stereotypes
2
also known as female genital cutting and female circumcision, is the removal of some or all of the external female
genitalia
3
manipulation is the skillful handling, controlling or using of something or someone.
4
the act of trading sex for food, money, a place to stay, etc.
prostitution and survival sex can be extremely dangerous due to abuse (both sexual and

physical) and STDs. In another study, nearly forty four percent of homeless LGBT youth has

reported being asked by someone on the street to exchange sex for money, food, drugs, clothes,

or shelter, compared to only twenty six percent of straight homeless youth[6].

Homeless LGBT youth tend to see higher rates of abuse and victimization than their

heterosexual counterparts due to being seen as vulnerable and desperate. LGBT people must

also face the specter of hate violence in the form of sexual assault, studies show that fifty eight

percent of homeless LGBT youth have been sexually assaulted, compared to only thirty three

percent of homeless heterosexual youth[6].

The main causes of youth homelessness, regardless of orientation, falls into three,

integral categories; family problems, economic problems, and residential instability[15].

Heterosexual and LGBT homelessness is primarily caused by problems within the family,

although many youth choose to leave home after years of physical and sexual abuse, strained

relationships, a family members addiction, and/or parental neglect[15]. According to interviews

done by the Street Outreach Program[16], youth report the causes of their homelessness: fifty two

percent were asked to leave home by a parent or guardian, twenty five percent were unable to

find a job, twenty four percent claimed to be physically abused or beaten, or left due to

caretaker's drug or alcohol abuse. Additionally, seventeen percent of homeless youth were

forced into unwanted sexual activity5 by a family or household member. This information is

supported by a 2011 survey study by a Massachusetts high school sample[3] that found that

LGBT youth were no more likely to be homeless and living with their parents than non-LGBT

5
rape
youth. Therefore, according to the study's authors, it is not that LGBT youth are more likely to

be part of a homeless family, but rather that their higher rate of homelessness is caused by being

more likely to be evicted or ran off by their family. Another study conducted by the

Hetrick-Martin Institute[5] showed that homeless queer females aged 1315 in New York City,

state that fifty percent of them were homeless because they were fleeing familial corrective rape.

The main theme of both these explanations is the fact that since the family conflicts associated

with LGBT youth occur relatively late in a youth's development, LGBT youth are much less

likely to be placed in foster care due to their sexuality.

Youth may also become homeless when their families suffer from a financial crisis, this

could be from lack of affordable housing, limited employment opportunities, insufficient

employment wages, no medical insurance, or meager welfare benefits[6]. Homelessness can also

occur when the youths are separated from their families by the shelter, transitional housing, or

child welfare policies. Some youths that live in residential or institutional homes such as foster

care, or become homeless when they are discharged with no housing or income to support them.

One nation-wide survey conducted by the National Association of Social Workers[15] reported

that more than one-in-five youth who arrived at shelters came directly from foster care, and that

more than one-in-four had been in foster care in the previous year.

Rejection and discrimination at home lead to severe personal and social problems,

thirteen is the average age that LGBT youth come out, at this time, once out LGBT youth

commonly experience discrimination from their families, compared to their heterosexual

counterparts. LGBT youth are 8.4 times more likely to attempt suicide, 5.9 times as likely to
have experienced depression, 3.4 more times to abuse drugs, and 3.4 times as likely to have

unprotected sex if they are rejected and cast out by their families in their teen years[6].

Child welfare systems often fail to protect gay and transgender youth, seventy eight

percent of LGBT youth have either run away, or were removed from their foster care placements

because of conflict or discrimination due to their orientation or gender identity[13]. Many of the

professional staff in out-of-home placements say that LGBT youth are not safe in group-home

environments[13].

Federal programs tend to overlook homeless LGBT youth by underfunding campaigns

that help them, only half of the $195 million dollar budget for homeless-assistance is used to

help youth get out of the ring of homelessness that they are in, and less than half is spent on

specifically helping LGBT youth[6]. Less than one percent of the $44 billion federal budget for

rental assistance, public housing, and affordable housing programs allocated for homeless youth

housing assistance, with that one percent spent on housing assistance, only 44,483 out of 766,800

homeless youth identified through Runaway and Homeless Youth Act programs in 2008 were

given a bed in a shelter[6].

To summarize, being homeless as a youth involves more than lacking a dependable place

to go to after school. It is compounded by the absence of security, both physical and mental, at a

time when a person is most vulnerable. Still, statistics depicting LGBT youth homelessness in

the U.S. are either too difficult to track down or too narrow in scope, which significantly impairs

efforts to address the problem in hand, the data is sparse in large part because homeless kids

typically become very adept at dealing with and hiding their situations from their peers[7]. Jama

Shelton, a columnist for the Huffington Post writes about his experience as a homeless queer
teen, near the end of his article he talks about how we need to help the kids that we are failing.

And it is time we start to talk about it. In a deeper way. So we're not just talking about family

rejection, but we're also talking about how segments of our society sanction it. So we're not just

talking about putting more beds in homeless shelters, but also preventing our young people from

needing those beds to begin with. Let's talk about how our systems often fail LGBT youth and

lets talk about poverty and how youth of color are overrepresented. Lets talk about what we're

doing to challenge the institutionalized oppression that makes it incredibly difficult for a young

person of transgender experience to get a job, to move through Runaway and Homeless Youth

(RHY) programs, to gain equal access and to have an equal shot at the future they deserve. And

then let's do more than talk, let's do.[11]. We need to help these youths, they are the future of our

world, it should not matter if they are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender, they are children

that are in need of help, our help.

 Citations:

[1]
1. Ray, Nicholas, and Colby Berger. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth: An

epidemic of homelessness. National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute, 2007.
[2]
2. Cochran, B. N., Stewart, A. J., Ginzler, J. A., & Cauce, A. (2002). Challenges Faced

by Homeless Sexual Minorities: Comparison of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender

Homeless Adolescents With Their Heterosexual Counterparts. American Journal Of

Public Health, 92(5), 773-777.

[3]
3. Corliss, H. L., Goodenow, C. S., Nichols, L., & Austin, S. (2011). High Burden of

Homelessness Among Sexual-Minority Adolescents: Findings From a Representative

Massachusetts High School Sample. American Journal Of Public Health, 101(9),

1683-1689. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2011.300155
[4]
4. Durso, L. E., & Gates, G. J. (2012). Serving Our Youth: Findings from a National

Survey of Services Providers Working with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender

Youth Who Are Homeless or At Risk of Becoming Homeless. The Williams Institute.

5. [5]
"The Ongoing Plight of Homeless Queer Youth." Oblogdeeoblogda. 2013. Web. 3 Oct.

2015.

6. [6]
"Gay and Transgender Youth Homelessness by the Numbers." Name. Web. 3 Oct.

2015.
[7]
7. "Homeless Youth Education Fund Grays Harbor." Homeless Youth Education Fund

Grays Harbor. Web. 3 Oct. 2015.

8. [8]
"Commentary." The Rutherford Institute. Web. 3 Oct. 2015.
[9]
9. H.L. Corliss, et al. 2011, "Discussion."
10. [10] Sharp, Kristopher. "Falling Through the Cracks: My Struggle to Survive as a

Homeless Youth." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com. Web. 3 Oct. 2015.

11. [11] Shelton, Jama. "LGBT Youth Homelessness Is Not an Us/Them Issue." The

Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com. Web. 3 Oct. 2015.

"LGBT Homelessness - National Coalition for the Homeless." National Coalition for
12. [12]

the Homeless. Web. 19 Sept. 2015.

"Nowhere to Go." Name. Web. 3 Oct. 2015.

13. [13]

Shapiro, Lila. "New Report Offers A Look At 'Survival Sex' And The LGBTQ Youth
14. [14]

Who Are Turning To It." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com. Web. 3 Oct.

2015.

15. [15] Web. 3 Oct. 2015.

16. [16] "STREET OUTREACH PROGRAM." Web. 3 Oct. 2015.