One early morning last April, Pride Foundation’s regional staff person in Montana, Kim Leighton, received a worried email from a local Helena teacher and Gender-Sexuality Alliance (GSA) advisor.

The teacher had reached out because two of his LGBTQ+ students needed help. One of them had been kicked out of their house and the other was living at home in a tense environment where it may not be safe to come out. It had been snowing for two consistent days—the tail end of a long, arduous winter in Helena and across Montana. It was also spring break, so they didn’t even have school to rely on for warmth. The first student had found a temporary place to stay with a friend whose parents are supportive, but the teacher wanted to know of any local resources for LGBTQ+ youth experiencing homelessness.

Leighton was heartbroken, and felt this reality keenly as someone who also identifies as LGBTQ+ and who was born and raised in Helena:

This is my community. I grew up here. I live here. This reality felt far too sharp to understand—and I felt it deep in my heart.

The story of these two students is devastating—but it unfortunately is not unique to Helena, nor is it unique to Montana. We hear stories like this occurring throughout our region—parents and families who can’t reconcile another family member’s identity as an LGBTQ+ person. As a result, LGBTQ+ youth, and particularly LGBTQ+ youth of color, are experiencing homelessness across the Northwest due to family rejection at disproportionate and alarming rates.

LGBTQ+ Youth Homelessness, by the numbers:

An estimated 1.6 million youth are homeless each year.

  • Despite only making up 7 percent of the general youth population, up to 40 percent of youth experiencing homelessness are LGBTQ+
  • Of that 40 percent:
    • 44 percent identify as Black and 26 percent identify as Latino/a/x

The most commonly cited reason for homelessness for these youth is family rejection.

Efforts to Combat Youth Homelessness, and its Impact on LGBTQ+ Youth
  • Create and support Youth Action Boards to ensure that youth and young adults affected by this issue are not only at the table, but running the table. All policy change and programmatic work should be centered around the voices of these young people—and they should be compensated for their time, expertise, and unique perspectives.
  • Work across systems and sectors to ensure equitable policy change so that youth are supported in all of the ways they engage with the world, and at every level of the systems they interact with
  • Collect data and support additional research in order to understand the full scope of the issue of youth homelessness. Currently, very little data exists—and we know that we don’t count if we aren’t counted.
  • Support youth-serving organizations in skill-building and training to become even more effective in meeting the needs of LGBTQ+ youth
  • Invest in family reunification programs and support relationship building within families when it is safe to do so
  • Work to dismantle racism and white supremacy: While LGBTQ+ people are confronted with discrimination, LGBTQ+ people of color, unlike white people, face systemic and structural racism that creates significant barriers to opportunities and resources. The impact of these barriers, coupled with the ongoing underinvestment to address them, is apparent in the data that shows significant disparities for LGBTQ people of color—and this reality must be acknowledged and combatted.

Together, people across the Northwest are working to support LGBTQ+ youth in their communities to make sure their experiences with housing instability are brief, temporary, and one-time.

Supporters can be a part of this work through contributing their time, talent, and resources to the efforts above. Get involved in ending youth homelessness in your area and support our work and the work of our incredible youth-serving Community Grant Recipients and community partner organizations.

Because no youth or young adult should have to face family rejection and homelessness simply for being who they are.