The purpose of this study is to contribute new insights into the circumstances, dimensions and experiences of young LGBTIQ homeless people. Life skills training for young LGBTIQ people should include understanding tenancy guidelines (rights and responsibilities, preparing and presenting for tenancy interviews, building positive relationships with landlords and services).
Scope of the study
Structure of the report
Two of the research projects specifically explored the issue of service delivery for LGBTIQ youth. In assessing and reporting on homelessness rates for LGBTIQ people, it is important to note that a high proportion of young people from this group are likely to be 'invisible' to existing accommodation services. In some studies, the main causes of homelessness for LGBTIQ youth are similar to heterosexual youth: family conflict and domestic violence (for example Cochran et al.
This represents a major gap in existing knowledge about the causes of LGBTIQ youth homelessness. The focus on LGBTIQ youth here derives from the youth-focused literature. Those young people who experienced this felt that their sexual orientation made it even more difficult.
Traditional ways of working with young people were seen by many of the participants as punitive. With more young people coming out, there are greater numbers of LGBTIQ people seeking agency support and housing assistance.
Backgound 12
Paucity of Australian research on LGBTIQ people and homelessnes
This suggests that there is strong support for sector training to improve services for LGBTIQ young people and that workers would like to be more aware of the issues impacting on LGBTIQ young people's experience of housing services. At the time of the 2005 survey, there was no supported housing service in Queensland that specifically addressed the needs of LGBTIQ young people. There are research projects that have focused on the social experiences and circumstances of same-sex people, which have attracted young people in Australia generally.
Eradicating homophobic and transphobic harassment and violence in schools would therefore potentially have an impact on LGBTIQ youth homelessness.
Why sexual orientation and gender identity are important in
A key finding of the 1998 report was that same-sex attracted youth reported a high incidence of bullying and abuse occurring in school contexts (Hillier et al. Based on this finding the authors recommended that high schools need to develop programs to address harassment around sexual orientation through dedicated education (Hillier et al. While a strategy such as this may not appear to have a clear link to homelessness as experienced by LGBTIQ youth, harassment and violence in schools can contribute to the stress that leads some LGBTIQ youth to leave home.
In other words, while generalized interventions to improve the experiences of LGBTIQ youth are unlikely to be adequate to end homelessness for LGBTIQ youth by themselves, improving the experiences of LGBTIQ youth at a level systematic is likely to help towards this goal.
LGBTIQ people are over-represented in homeless populations
This trend is the same in the Republic of Ireland, although the figures are twice as high for LGBTIQ respondents considered to be living in poverty in Ireland (O'Connor and Molloy 2001: 16). Invisible', either because they do not disclose their sexual orientation or gender identity to service providers (e.g. Maberley and Coffey and are therefore not included in official estimates) or because they are uncomfortable accessing accommodation services - and therefore live precariously in privatized dependency relationships (PICYS O'Connor and Molloy. With the recognized limitations that arise in accurately measuring homeless populations and the lack of systematic data held in Australia, there is substantial evidence that LGBTIQ people are over-represented in homeless populations.
There is therefore a need to better understand why LGBTIQ people experience homelessness and how effective existing services are in supporting this group's transition from homelessness to safe and stable housing.
Pathways into homelessness for LGBTIQ people
Experiences of this kind are unlikely to be captured in survey data of homeless young people in Australia because there are no questions about sexual orientation, gender identity or violence they may have experienced in the wider community. Australian research, partly due to its small volume and partly by design, has provided fewer accounts of the experiences of young people who experience parental rejection and abuse related to their sexual orientation or gender identity leading to homelessness. For all the young people, disclosing their sexual identity to their parents resulted in them having to leave home (PICYS emphasis added).
For LGBTIQ young people, homophobic and/or transphobic abuse in the family and/or in the wider community – including school communities – often precedes homelessness, and directly or indirectly contributes to LGBTIQ people being homeless or unsafely housed.
Higher prevalence of the negative outcomes associated with
Parental rejection and domestic violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity have been cited as causes of homelessness for LGBTIQ youth in Australia (for example PICYS, 2003: 7; Hillier Turner and Mitchell USA (for example Rosario, Scrimshaw and Hunter Mottet and Ohle and UK studies (for example Roche, 2005: 4) 30 per cent of young people who took part in the research identified sexuality as the main reason for leaving home. It is clear from the literature that the data currently collected in Australia on Reasons why young people become homeless is inadequate in capturing abuse and violence related to sexual orientation and gender identity, whether this is experienced at home or in other social contexts.
These issues are compounded for LGBTIQ youth who are homeless, especially when they have experienced parental rejection or family violence based on their sexual orientation and/or gender identity.
The experiences of LGBTIQ people in accommodation and other
At this point it is worth emphasizing that existing research has found that the attitudes of some workers towards LGBTIQ young people go beyond being uncomfortable and unwelcoming to openly hostile and abusive. There are also consistent accounts in Australian research of young people experiencing situations of harassment from fellow service users where workers do not intervene, leaving the young people to deal with the situation alone. In these cases, not only is duty of care breached, but the idea that homophobia and transphobia are socially acceptable is tacitly reinforced for these young people.
As noted above, the consequence of this practice is that LGBTIQ young people often feel safer on the streets than in "supported" accommodation.
Australian research to date: What is currently known about the
I don't know how many Bible verses are thrown at you..just like keep arguing with me to the point I would be in tears like every time I saw this..I sin I was evil. This example is not the only occurrence of this kind of abuse of a young person's right to respect, safety and security and of the most fundamental duty of care. The way you are is not the right way; you sin every time you do an act in your people's way.
Failure to recognise sexual orientation and gender identity as relevant
Data documented on this electronic reporting form does not include sexual orientation or gender identity of customers. Recording data about sex in this binary either/or way also means that customers who are transgender, whose gender on their birth certificate may be different from their lived gender, also get a discount. Furthermore, the options provided to seek accommodation services, sexual orientation and gender identity are not considered as issues.
However, as discussed in parental rejection, as well as violence and abuse based on sexual orientation and gender identity in the wider community can be causes of homelessness for LGBTIQ people.
Without data but not without expertise: The need to recognise
Existing data in Australia not only fails to adequately capture the experiences of LGBTIQ people or reflect the extent to which they access services: data prevents the experiences of these groups from narrowing and inaccurate gender binaries that to describe, to redescribe, a heteronorm. This suggests that LGBTIQ people have generally been neglected in mainstream research into homelessness in Australia. In relation to the data the government expects from the Homelessness Services Specialist, the experiences of young LGBTIQ people are left out.
Existing reporting systems do not allow data to be recorded that would track sexual orientation and gender identity as causes of homelessness.
Local and international responses and best practice
LGBTIQ young people, including either direct or incidental reporting on the experience of homelessness and social services.
Best practice standards: Insights from the USA 25
It has been recommended that young people be allowed to write this personal information on application forms – but never be forced to do so (Lambda Legal et al. Another example of practice innovation undertaken in the US is “ Listening Forums" facilitated by the Child Welfare League of America and Lambda Legal as part of their research report on the experiences of LGBTQ youth in the welfare system. The listening forums followed a specific methodology (Woronoff and Estrada and attempted to create spaces where workers in the heard directly from young people about their experiences.
Very important methodological and structural systems existed to make the Listening Forums sensitive to the needs of young people.
Equality and housing: Policy developments in the UK 26
Many of the service members argued that the expectations of young LGBTIQ people were unrealistic. More often, the young people interviewed experienced non-acceptance because of their sexuality or gender. Many of the young people recalled incidents at other agencies where they witnessed or experienced bullying or intimidation.
Many of the young people interviewed felt that some agencies saw them as broken and in need of repair. The growing role of casework involves extensive external referral work, but practical relationship building is essential for young people and particularly for young LGBTIQ people. Dempsey (1997) 'A low priority in a hierarchy of needs: A profile of the sexual health needs of homeless youth in Australia'.
