Homeless gay men
Why LGBTQ+ people over 50 who experience homelessness require our focus too
I recently worked with a 72 year old gay dude called Shaun*. Shaun’s HIV positive, has suffered four bouts of cancer, self manages a stoma and has poor mobility. When a flash flood made him homeless, his local authority initially refused to offer him interim accommodation.
Shaun had no immediate family to assist him. I’m sure that, without Stonewall Housing’s advocacy, he would have ended up on the streets. Thankfully we intervened, successfully arguing his case to receive emergency accommodation and working with him to find a longer-term option.
For older members of the LGBTQ+ people, these kinds of situations are more common than you might think. Our research shows they are more likely to trial isolation, are more likely to be estranged from their biological families and less likely to acquire children to turn to for support in their older years.
To truly perceive why older people who identify as LGBTQ+ may experience difficulties like Shaun, it’s important to perceive the environment they grew up in.
In 1983, against the backdrop of the emerging AIDs crisis, homophobic attacks from the squeeze
Homelessness Among LGBT Adults in the US
Executive Summary
This study is the first to provide estimates of the percentage of sexual and gender minority adults experiencing homelessness compared to cisgender straight adults using representative national data. We provide estimates of homelessness (both recent experiences and lifetime prevalence) from three nationally representative surveys of U.S. adults conducted between 2016 and 2019 measuring sexual orientation and gender identity.
We examined the proportion of people who had recent experiences with homelessness (in the build of living temporarily with friends or family, living in a shelter or group home, or living in a place not intended for housing such as on the street, park, wagon, or abandoned building) in the 12 months prior to being surveyed. We found that:
- 8% of transgender adults across all sexual orientation identities;
- 3% of cisgender and genderqueer sexual minority adults;
- and 1% of cisgender unbent adults reported indicators of recent homelessness.
- Among sexual minority adults, African American respondents had significantly higher rates (6%) of recent housing instability.
We also assessed the proportion o
LGBTQ+ Young People Are More Likely to Experience Homelessness
LGBTQ+ youth experience a much higher risk of homelessness than their peers. Once on the street, they face additional hardships because of stigma and discrimination. This is the life for LGBTQ+ youth across all of the cities where Covenant House works.
120%
LGBTQ+ youth are 120% more likely to experience homelessness than their peers.
40%
In the U.S., 40% of youth facing homelessness identify as LGBTQ+, compared to just 7% of all youth.
30%
At Covenant House, about 30% of the youth in residence with us identify as LGBTQ+
Why Do Queer Youth Experience Homelessness?
Like many youth facing homelessness, it's often not just one thing that causes them to trial homelessness. Some may be facing poverty or subjected to abuse in the home, while others may have aged out of the foster care system.
But the most usual reason that Gay youth experience homelessness is family dispute due to their gender identity or expression or their sexual orientation. Many young people narrate us heartbreaking stories of rejection and eviction that led to life on the streets.
Once homeless, LGBTQ+ youth confront f
Two young women in high educational facility are best friends, or so their families thought until they discovered that the duo were more than friends. The reaction of their families was powerful and harsh.Both of these fresh women were thrown out of their homes by their parents because of who they are and who they love. It’s not an uncommon story and one that leads to many young LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Attracted to both genders, Transgender, Queer/Questioning) people facing homelessness.
“One of the major factors that contributes to homelessness and poverty for the LGBTQ population is family rejection. Such rejection also has a excellent impact on a person’s ability to afford a home. For older people, severed family ties can mean a lack of access to capital for a down payment, which is often cited as a major barrier to home ownership,” explains Luis A. Vasquez, Daniel H. Renberg Law Fellow at The Williams Institute, UCLA, School of Commandment. Vasquez is one of the authors, along with Adam P. Romero and Shoshana K. Goldberg, of the report LGBT People and Housing Affordability, Discrimination and Homelessness that was published by the Williams Institute in April 2020.
The Williams Institu