Cathy Kristofferson | Oblogdeeoblogda | January 09, 2013.
Creating Art To End Homelessness
The epidemic of homeless queer youth is an issue I’ve followed and advocated for because to me our youth are the most vulnerable among us. They are empowered by our successes and are coming out younger and younger to families and schools and communities not always ready for them to far too often devastating results. One of which is homelessness and the domino of consequences homelessness can set off.
Here in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts we have been trying to pass legislation – An Act Providing Housing and Support Services for Unaccompanied Homeless Youth, a.k.a The Unaccompanied Homeless Youth Act – with no success. This upcoming legislative session will be the third attempt. Previously H.1862 and H.3838 failed to even make it through the budget process, the second time despite being stripped of all funding.
Released in August 2012, 2011 data from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (ESE) estimated that there were 5,853 students in Massachusetts’ public high school who were experiencing homelessness and not in the custody of their parent or legal guardian. So that likely means around 2,000 identify as LGBT using the 34% MA average. We know that queer youth are forced to drop out at a rate of 50-60% so include those back in and it’s more like 3,000 queer homeless youth on the streets.
Daily Queer News 