Homeless Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Youth in New York City: Insights from the Field

Between 240,000 and 400,000 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth experience at least one episode of homelessness each year in the United States (National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2008). In New York City alone, there are 3,800-20,000 homeless youth, 15-40% of whom are LGBT (NYC Commission, 2010).These prevalence estimates have a wide margin of error, as statistics about stigmatized and invisible populations always do, but absence of more precise data would be a poor excuse to not address the problem based on what we do know (Ray, 2006).There is no denying that existing services'capacity is dwarfed by the need, as there are only about 250 LGBT-specific shelter and transitional living program beds in New York City (Anderson-Minshall, 2012). In mainstream, non-LGBT-specific homeless youth services, LGBT youth are often discriminated against and inadequately served (Hunter, 2008). Health disparities are evident, as homeless LGBT youth are at greater risk for victimization, sexual risk behaviors, substance use, mental illness, and suicidality than heterosexual homeless youth (Gattis, 2013).This paper's authors are social work professors who served as volunteer staff members, consultants, evaluators, and community-based researchers in various New York City organizations serving homeless LGBT youth. Our work often included training volunteers, interns, and new hires, as well as creating cases for action for grants, fundraising, and the media. The conventional wisdom understanding that we encountered in this work was, in many respects, correct-most people intuitively understood that LGBT status increases risk of homelessness, that employment and housing discrimination impedes attempts to exit homelessness, and that homeless LGBT youth experience high rates of sex work, HIV risk, substance use, mental illness, and suicidality (Keuroghlian, Shtasel, & Bassuk, 2014; Tyler, 2008; Walls & Bell, 2011). We also found some things that were reliably counterintuitive to our various audiences: Only a minority of homeless LGBT youth report having been "kicked out" for being LGBT; just being engaged with services did not guarantee they were being well-served; some of their issues with housing and economic opportunity are shared struggles for their whole generation; and most homeless LGBT youth were not mentally ill, HIV+, involved in sex work, or using hard drugs. In this paper, we review existing data around these homeless LGBT youth "counterintuitives," note how they may have shaped service practices and priorities, and suggest how this service sector could evolve to meet these youths' actual needs.Becoming Homeless"Kicked Out"for Being LGBTAlthough the narrative we usually encountered about homeless LGBT youth is that they were forced to leave familial homes for the streets because of their primary caregivers' reactions to their gender expression or sexual-minority identity, only about 14-39% report having been "kicked out" for being LGBT (Berberet, 2006; Mallon, 1998). A provider-report survey, however, suggests LGBT status was the proximal cause of homelessness for a far higher proportion (Durso & Gates, 2012), and caregivers' distaste for gender-atypical self-expression can cause problems for LGBT youth even without LGBT identity being in the foreground (Keuroghlian et ah, 2014). Kicking youth out is only one of many possible parental reactions to their child being LGBT and is, thankfully, rare (Savin-Williams & Ream, 2003). Parental reactions to a child's LGBT status can be understood in terms of family systems: Coming out changes a child's role within a family system, e.g., as a potential grandparent. Role changes are inherently disruptive to systems, and families can be expected to restore homeostasis in similar ways to how they meet other challenges (Savin-Williams, 2001). Families themselves are also parts of larger systems like churches and communities, and families must manage how their response to their child's LGBT status will affect their own position (Valera & Taylor, 2011). …