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LGBTQ+ Young Individuals Are More Likely to Go Through Homelessness
In comparison to their peers, LGBTQ+ young individuals are at a substantially elevated likelihood of experiencing homelessness. After becoming homeless, they encounter further adversities as a consequence of discrimination and stigma. Throughout all the cities where Covenant House operates, this represents the harsh truth for LGBTQ+ youth.
One hundred and twenty percent
Homelessness is one hundred and twenty percent more likely to be experienced by LGBTQ+ youth than by their counterparts.
Forty percent
Forty percent of homeless youth within the U.S. identify as LGBTQ+, as opposed to a mere seven percent of all youth.
Thirty percent
Approximately thirty percent of young individuals residing at Covenant House identify themselves as LGBTQ+.
Why Do LGBTQ+ Youth Go Through Homelessness?
Similar to numerous young individuals grappling with homelessness, frequently it isn't solely one factor that brings them to experience homelessness. Some may be dealing with hardship or might be subjected to abuse within their household, while others may have become too old for the foster care system's support.
Nonetheless, family discord resulting from their gender identity, expression, or sexual orientation stands out as the primary cause for LGBTQ+ youth homelessness. We are told sad accounts of rejection and eviction by numerous young individuals, which ultimately led to their lives on the streets.
LGBTQ+ youth encounter even greater obstacles after becoming homeless. Some individuals report discriminatory practices and policies when attempting to utilize resources for homeless youth. Moreover, LGBTQ+ young individuals face a heightened risk of being physically assaulted, forced into sexual acts, engaging in sexual activity to meet fundamental needs, inflicting self-harm, and experiencing discrimination or stigmatization.
LGBTQ+ Young Individuals Encounter Greater Than Double the Likelihood of Experiencing Homelessness
According to an innovative research conducted by Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago, LGBTQ+ youth are at a one hundred and twenty percent greater likelihood to go through homelessness when compared with their counterparts. While LGBTQ+ youth constitute just seven percent of the entire U.S. young population, they shockingly account for forty percent of all young individuals grappling with homelessness nationwide.
On numerous occasions, youth arriving at Covenant House do so carrying intricate histories filled with physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. Rejection within their families, educational institutions, and communities as a result of their gender identity or sexual orientation further traumatizes LGBTQ+ youth. This abandonment brings about the absence of any support structure, thereby placing LGBTQ+ youth at an escalated vulnerability to exploitation, human trafficking, physical aggression, and suicide.
Adults are needed in the lives of LGBTQ+ young people to ensure their safety, provide housing, and not only accept them but celebrate them for who they truly are.
LGBTQ+ Youth Homelessness Across Various Regions
Even though LGBTQ+ youth only represent seven percent of the total U.S. youth demographic, they make up an astounding forty percent of all young individuals in the country experiencing homelessness.
Furthermore, LGBTQ+ youth encounter a greater likelihood of "elevated levels of hardship." Higher rates of assault, trafficking, trauma, and early death are included within hardship. Black youth who identify as LGBTQ+, most notably young Black men, face the highest homelessness rates.
Within Canada, lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender, queer, transexual, questioning, and 2-spirited youth (LGBTQ2S+) are underrepresented within the broader youth demographic. However, akin to the U.S., they are overrepresented amidst all young individuals confronting homelessness.
It's surmised that twenty-five to forty percent of all young individuals grappling with homelessness within Canada identify as LGBTQ2S. Inside the shelter infrastructure, approximately twenty percent identify as LGBTQ2S. Too frequently, these youth come across the very same transphobia and homophobia within shelters that they ran away from in their own residences.
Young individuals identifying as LGBTQ+ in Honduras and Guatemala (located in Central America's Northern Triangle) encounter some of the most severe violence, marginalization, and discrimination perpetrated by family, fellow peers, security personnel, and gang affiliates. Throughout Mexico, there has been a surge in LGBTQ+ youth being forced out of their homes in recent times, and the hazard of being openly out while existing on the streets poses a substantial danger.
A Human Rights Watch report elucidates the way LGBTQ+ young individuals face a 'complex framework of violence and discrimination' endangering their physical well-being, restricting their life opportunities, potentially prompting them to run away from their residences, discontinue their education, or, in certain instances, escape their homeland.
For LGBTQ+ Youth, Our Houses Offer an Affirming, Safe, and Welcoming Environment
At Covenant House, providing unconditional love and unwavering respect for all young individuals grappling with homelessness forms the bedrock of our goal. Ever since our inception in nineteen seventy-two, welcoming young individuals who identify as LGBTQ+ to our programs has been an integral facet of who we are.
To guarantee an authentic welcome for LGBTQ+ youth and all young individuals, regardless of expression, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, or race, our staff across all sites undergo training.
LGBTQ+ youth frequently hesitate to embrace added risks through engaging housing avenues or services that don't promptly exhibit secure and affirming programs and spaces intended for young individuals akin to them. LGBTQ+ youth frequently measure their resolve to engage with an agency against the inherent hazards of remaining on the streets, or subsisting without a structured support framework. Throughout all of the cities in which we operate, such is the reality for LGBTQ+ youth.
Ensuring that all youth experiencing homelessness feel secure and welcome stands as our paramount concern. Our mission urges us to enable young individuals to have faith in themselves and honor their dignity in their current state.
We consistently initiate novel endeavors to bolster LGBTQ+ youth. We've evolved into a crucial lifeline for LGBTQ+ youth and young grown-ups encountering homelessness, attributable to our distinct array of resources, encompassing counseling, workforce development, education, food, housing, alongside other trauma-informed offerings fashioned with the intention of fostering positive youth evolution.
"At Covenant House, I discovered the very first individual to exhibit an interest in my own life. During that instance, I didn't feel marginalized or as if I were a homeless child."
"I found myself relocating from residence to residence given that the individuals whom I believed were there for me weren't genuinely there for me."
Who Is Susceptible?
Numerous multifaceted elements amplify a young person's susceptibility to undergoing homelessness. Demographic susceptibility elements associated with becoming homeless encompass identifying as Black, Indigenous, or Hispanic; being unmarried and parenting; or identifying as LGBTQ+. Children nurtured in hardship and youth deficient in possessing a high school diploma or equivalency also possess an amplified likelihood of homelessness.
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Young individuals of color
LGBTQ+ youth
Youth Who Are Pregnant and Parenting
Provide Assistance to LGBTQ+ Youth Encountering Homelessness
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