Transcript LGBT YOUNG PEOPLE

LGBT YOUNG PEOPLE
Homelessness
Vulnerable Groups
Socio-economic exclusion
 Disrupted childhoods
 Care leavers
 Young offenders
 Runaways
 LGBT young people (could be any or all
of above)
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LGBT Homeless Young People
USA: between 20 and 40%
 Similar findings in UK
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Stonewall Housing 2001
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being lesbian or gay can in itself cause some
young people to become homeless
even when not a direct cause of
homelessness, a young person’s sexuality can
be one of the causal factors
being lesbian or gay could add to the housing
difficulties a young person experiences
young lesbians and gay men are completely
invisible in most housing and homelessness
services
Stonewall Housing Association,
London
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1983 first Housing Association aimed
exclusively at meeting the needs of lesbians
and gay men. Targeted youth
Funders: Association of London Governments;
Supporting People in Hackney, Haringey,
Islington and Newham; Bridge House Trust;
City Parochial Foundation; Comic Relief
Albert Kennedy Trust,
Manchester & London
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The Albert Kennedy Trust was set up in Manchester
in 1990. Its aim is to ensure that all LGBT young
people are able to live in accepting, supportive and
caring homes, by providing a range of services to
meet the individual needs of those who would
otherwise be homeless or living in a hostile
environment.
They plan to meet their aim by:
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Providing appropriate homes through supported lodgings,
fostering and other specialist housing schemes.
Enabling young people to manage independent living
successfully.
Improving attitudes within society towards lesbian, gay and
bisexual young people.
Newcastle City Council: Supporting People
Sector Briefing, Services for young people
(2008-2013)
LGBT young people identified as
vulnerable to homelessness.
 Non-emergency access: 41 units (inc 8
LGBT specialist unit) + 63 Foyer units,
10 supported lodgings
 Floating support: 555 hours across
tenure; plus 2 LGBT units
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Julie’s Story
NAT Holistic Assessment
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Age of coming out dropped to 14.8 years
Fewer out to parents, more parental rejection
Fewer had positive response when they first came out
Only 18% had positive information about homosexuality at school
More aware of sexuality whilst at school
More experienced homophobic bullying but slightly fewer witnessed it
More truanted or dropped out of school as result of bullying
Significantly more teachers responded positively when LGBT young person came
out to them
More experienced a homophobic hate incident
Rise in levels of alcohol and drug use and smoking
Similar (high) levels of rape and sexual abuse
High levels of depression, anxiety, self-harm, suicide attempts, phobias
26% experienced homelessness
Examples from GALYIC
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15 year old young gay man thrown out day before GCSE exams
22 year old trans Asian disowned by family and death threat
22 year old gay Asian forced marriage
14 year old young gay man put on plane from Caribbean
16 year old lesbian couple rejected by families
13 year old young lesbian rejected by step-families
15 year old young gay man rejected by step-father
Lesbians door kicked in
Why are LGBT Youth
vulnerable to Homelessness
Parental rejection/lack of acceptance
 Fear of parental rejection/lack of
acceptance
 Homophobia/transphobia in housing
projects
 Fear of homophobia/transphobia in
housing projects
 Vulnerability not taken seriously
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Effects of Homelessness
Substance misuse
 Sexual exploitation
 Mental health problems
 Isolation from LGBT community
 Disengagement from services that don’t
meet their needs
 Underachievement in school
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10. Integrated Services
Include LGBT youth
amongst client group
1998 2008
3
6
Table 47: Supported Lodgings
25
20
15
10
5
0
Using Service
Out
Gay Friendly
Needs Met
Monitoring Data
There are three good reasons for including
sexual orientation and gender identity in
monitoring collection:
1. Government says agencies must monitor the
six equality strands
2. The data (if collected properly) can help you
identify gaps in service provision
3. It can help you find out whether the needs
of specific groups are being met.
Supported Lodgings
120
100
80
Referrals
25%
LGBT
Placements
LGBT Placements
60
40
20
0
2007
2008
2009
Key Choice: 16-25 years
6000
5000
4000
LGB
Not wish
Het
Total
25%
3000
2000
1000
0
Since 2007
Recommendation 1:
Monitoring & Assessment
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Need to improve assessment of LGBT youth
making homelessness applications to LA in
order to identify vulnerability and priority
need
Explain why collecting data
Where place question on form?
Include trans status
Monitoring followed up by referral to
appropriate service
Analysis of data to inform service provision
Recommendation 2: Making
Services Safer
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Management/frontline staff awareness
training
Challenging homophobia amongst service
users
More LGBT-providers in Supported Lodgings
Adopt similar approach as Newcastle City
Council?
National Youth Homelessness Scheme
website
Recommendation 3:
Prevention
LGBT Family Mediation Service
 Preventative work in schools and
children and young people’s services to
tackle homophobia and support LGBT
young people
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SUPPORTING PEOPLE
Supporting People is the government's long
term policy to enable local authorities to plan,
commission and provide housing-related
support services that help vulnerable people
to live independently. It provides the means
through which national and local Government
ensure that the most vulnerable members of
our community get the help and support they
need.