Toronto Based LGBT Friendly Resources

One of the major things that I wanted to do for this blog was to put together a list of resources for LGBT youth experiencing housing insecurity, this task has turned out to be much more difficult than I ever anticipated and the fact that this information isn’t readily available could be detrimental to LGBT youth who are experiencing homelessness. Despite the rate of LGBT youth who are homeless, there remains a severe lack of resources that are accepting and understanding of LGBT youth and what it means to be a sexual minority. The most striking part of my research has been the fact that I have had an extremely difficult time finding a list of local resources for LGBT homeless youth. As part of his research for his master’s thesis, I. Alex Abramovich asked participants which Toronto youth homelessness resources they considered to be welcoming and safe for LGBT individuals.

• Participants said that Toronto based SHOUT clinic was accepting of LGBT individuals and that they found it to be a welcoming environment that was understanding of LGBT needs.
• CAMH (Centre for Addiction and Mental Health) has a “Rainbow Service” program which offers counseling and rehabilitation services specifically geared for LGBTQ individuals and is staffed by LGBTQ staff members and straight workers who are educated in the needs and issues of LGBT individuals.
• Toronto based SOY (Support Our Youth) is an organization that offers services specifically for LGBT youth.
• The LGBT youth line may also be a useful resource for LGBT youth experiencing crisis. They are a toll free hotline with staff that can provide youth with advice and resources to meet their specific issues. The hotline can be contacted at 1-800-268-9688

Trans and Homeless: No Safe Place to Go

Being a trans individual can be extremely difficult in our society even without the added stress of homelessness and housing insecurity. There is a lot of misunderstandings and ignorance about trans people and what it means to be trans and this lack of understanding often leads to transphobia, which can make day to day lives of trans people difficult if they don’t have the proper support systems. The issues that are faced by trans individuals in our society are often only further exacerbated when these individuals are experiencing homelessness. While there is little research done on gay and lesbian homelessness, there is even less information out there about trans experiences of homelessness. Homelessness can be an extremely precarious situation for trans individuals as they already have an increased risk of experiencing physical and sexual violence in their everyday lives and these risks are increased for trans individuals who are living on the streets or in precarious housing situations.

First of all, many staff at homeless shelters are not trained to understand what it means to be a trans individual and how to address the needs of trans people, and this is a major source of discomfort for trans people who are experiencing homelessness. The Young Street Mission running out of Toronto explains that many of the services that exist to help homeless youth express difficulty in serving trans youth. The fact that many shelters segregate residents by birth sex can cause discomfort for trans individuals if the shelters in question are not placing trans youth with the sex that they identify with. Placing trans individuals with individuals of their birth sex as opposed to those that match their gender identity can often lead to increased rates of physical and sexual violence for trans individuals in the shelter system. Another issue that trans people face in the shelter system is being mislabeled in terms of the pronouns they are being addressed by. When staff are uneducated in the needs and experiences of trans people they may not know how to properly address trans youth which can be extremely damaging to their self esteem and mental health especially for those who experience extreme gender dysphoria.

Trans youth who are homeless also have different health needs that may not necessarily be met if they are living on the streets. Homeless trans youth may not have access to hormone treatments especially if they have lost access to health insurance or if they don’t have a health card. This can be especially difficult for individuals who have already begun transition treatments before becoming homeless because this may force them to stop treatments which can be bad for their physical health or they may have to find alternate ways of getting the treatments that they need. Trans individuals who cannot afford to access safe and reliable medical treatment are at a higher risk of taking dangerous or illegal measures to gain the treatments that they want or need.

The issues faced by trans individuals in the shelter system can be even worse for FTM trans individuals. FTM trans individuals experiencing homelessness have expressed that they were not welcome in either shelters specifically for women or in shelters for men which means that in many cases these individuals have nowhere to go but the streets or are forced to resort to couch surfing or performing sex acts in exchange for temporary shelter and none of these options are overly safe. It is extremely important for existing shelters to begin to implement policy that makes shelters safer for trans individuals especially for individuals who may be turned away from gender specific shelters which can happen frequently if shelters don’t understand the experiences of trans individuals.

Young, Queer, and Homeless in Toronto

Video

This video was put together by I. Alex Abramovich as part of his masters thesis on LGBT homelessness in Toronto. The video includes important findings from Alex’s research and gives some background about what it is like to be a young queer person experiencing homelessness in Toronto. Not only does it include some important statistics about youth homelessness is also explores the discrimination that LGBT youth can experience in the shelter system and on the streets even in Toronto which is advertised as a global hub for LGBT people.