According to the True Colors Fund, a nonprofit launched by Cyndi Lauper, LGBTQ youth constitute 40 percent of the nation’s homeless minor population. Yet they make up just 7 percent of the youth population as a whole. It’s likely that such a disproportionate rate of LGBTQ youth homelessness is a result of religiously dogmatic or otherwise intolerant parents or guardians and/or bullying at school. But being turned out into the streets puts them at high risk for some heartbreaking circumstances: drug use, risky sexual behavior, being targeted by predators and other stressors — which is why advocates want to bring that 40 percent number to zero.
In Pinellas County, the proportion appears to be slightly higher than the national rate — 41 percent, said Larry Biddle of the LGBT Homeless Youth Project, an initiative funded by the Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg.
Not that such a number is easy to quantify.
“The real crux of the matter, the Achilles heel in this whole thing, is counting the kids,” said Biddle (who is married to CL's Editor-in-Chief David Warner). “It’s almost an impossibility.”
Often, they’ll couch surf or head out to the beaches — where no one can spot them among the tourists, and a highly visible police presence can protect them from being targeted by potential predators, said Lisa Davis, president and CEO of Family Resources. The 47-year-old Pinellas Park-based nonprofit dedicated to helping homeless and runaway youth has focused on LGBTQ young people in particular. Her organization has been chosen by St. Pete Pride this year as a recipient of the money left over after SPP puts on this weekend’s event. Davis said she hopes the funds will make up for federal grant dollars her organization recently lost out on, dollars that funded their Street Outreach program.
“We are currently operating without a Street Outreach team, and so we are hoping that through the funds [from] Pride we can re-engage with these young people,” Davis said.
For years, Family Resources had dedicated staff and budget to seeking out homeless LGBTQ youth and, if successful, helping get them set up with housing and employment. These are kids, Davis said, whom Family Resources “would never reach if we didn’t have trained staff out in the community… having the patience to earn their trust and establish those relationships.”
Funding for those positions is set to dry up in 2018 — not because of Trump budget cut proposals, but because Family Resources’ last grant application didn’t make the cut.
“It’s become very, very competitive,” said Davis. “We had that funding for about 18 years. And so even though we had a really good application, we lost the funding. So this year we’re applying for the funding again.”
They’ll know by September if they’ll be one of the 17 recipients of the grant (out of hundreds of applicants), which is administered through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
In the meantime, she said, she is hoping the Pride donation — whatever amount that ends up being — can help.
“We’re very honored and happy that they’ve chosen us,” she said. “We feel like the work that we’re trying to do hasn’t been really well-known in the community, and I feel like we’re just starting to get the momentum to really get a voice for these young people.”
One way they’re hoping to spread awareness is through Out of the Shadows, a project in which the life stories of homeless LGBTQ youth were performed by actors at an event at The Palladium in March, produced with help from Your Real Stories and FHSP. On Thursday, June 22, at noon, a “lunch and learn” event at Gulfport Public Library will feature video of that performance as well as a few words from Davis and others involved with the project. Also, look for Family Resources representatives at Creative Loafing’s Camp Out! booth during the St. Pete Pride Festival on Sunday, June 24, in the Grand Central District.
This article appears in Jun 22-29, 2017.