Are you Homeless? Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, or Transgender? Living in New York? What are your options? Will you get help? And the most important question, do you want to help yourself? I'm here to help you answer the question. I've lived in many homeless shelters, but I will be focusing on only two, those being, Sylvia's Place & Ali Forney Center. Lets start with Sylvia's Place.
Sylvia's Place was my first shelter and the one I've been to the most. Sylvia's Place is a emergency shelter meaning it is not a place for long term. It is merely a place to sleep if you have no other place to go. It is located underneath and run by MCC (Metropolitian Community Churches). In the advertisement they state:
Sylvia's Place is an emergency overnight shelter for LGBTQ youth (under 24). We are open 365 days/year from 8pm-8am. Curfew is at 12am. We provide hot meals (dinner and breakfast); clothing; showers; case management; physical and mental health medical services; and court advocacy. Drop-in services at Sylvia's Place are 6-10:30pm, Monday/Tuesday and Thursday/Friday.
From my experience the time they open varies, it depends on when the staff working that night decides to come in. This means you could be waiting from anywhere between 8pm to 10pm. Some times the staff will give you a heads up on this or sometimes they won't give you any notice. Curfew and lights out is at 12am, the beds should be made and light should be out by then. They show a picture of the youth sleeping on Cots but a majority of the time that I was there the Cots were mostly broken so we instead slept on the floor either in sleeping bags or on top of them with sheets and pillows that were shared by everyone in the shelter. They do provide meals but they don't cook them, most of the time you will have to make your own food. Unless its a holiday or special occasion, in which the staff will cook, you will more than likely be making most of your own meals. They sometimes have clothing donated to them. They have one shower which you must sign up for at night and only ten spots are open so not everyone can shower everyday. The case management from what I remember is by sitting down with someone who goes over the time you have spent there and what you are doing to change it so you can leave with a more stable life. They also have house meetings where they do this as well with everyone living there present. During the house meetings they discuss how you are doing and how you can changing and better yourself. They also take requests from the residents to find out what they can do to better help them to live there more comfortably. They also on certain days of the week they have a Med Van that comes by to help anyone who has any medical problems or questions. Sometimes even if you don't have insurance they will also help you as well. And they do as well have Court Advocacy which I have not personally used but I know people who have used it and who found it very helpful. Also during the mornings, before everyone leaves, you and everyone living there is required to take part on chores. The chores are made by the staff and if you do not take part in the chores, you possibly told to move out. While I was there, they also had two places called Sylvia's East and Sylvia's North which were for people who are selected for their good behavior and how well they are doing at getting themselves together. The places are typically nicer, have better food, and even have Cots for you to sleep on. But from what I last heard they had to close them both down because of lack of funding. Overall, Sylvia's Place is not a bad place, its not an ideal place to live but until you or them can get something together it is your best choice. If you'd like more information on Sylvia's Place please visit their website which I have linked below:
Ali Forney Center is much bigger than most of the other shelters programs in New York City and is funded by many LGBT and LGBT friendly people. It not only has Emegency Housing but they also have a Day Center as well as Transitional Housing. In order to sign up for any of there programs you must go to their Day Center located in Chelsea. They do have an extensive waiting list unfortunately which can lead to you waiting from anywhere as soon as just a couple of days to months depending on how many people are trying to get in. You don't need to be part of their Housing Program in order to go and use their services though. They offer at their Day Center:
- Street Outreach
- Case Management
- Primary Medical Treatment
- HIV Testing
- Mental Health Assessment & Treatment
- Food & Showers
- Employment Assistance Program
In their Emergency Housing Program, they have 5 separate locations. This amounts to at least 30 beds. They are usually regular apartments and are very nice and clean. You also have your own bed and closet to put your clothing in. While I was there I resided in Taffy Place located in Brooklyn. It was a nice apartment in a not so nice part of Brooklyn but at least it was a place to stay. Most of the staff was really nice with the exception of my case manager. My case manager would see me, and during the time I was dating someone who was taking me to Human Resources to get my benefits approved as well as getting some Mental Health Services. I told her most of this and I assumed she just marked it down that I was getting help. But instead she was marking that I refused help from them and assumed that I was doing nothing to help myself which is not that case. This lead me ultimately to having to move back to Sylvia's Place because my time expired there. Hopefully the case worker doesn't work there anymore, and if she does I hope that she tries more to help people and instead of assuming things she could gather the information through paperwork that the person should be getting from wherever they have been.
Just like Sylvia's they have chores that you must complete everyday before you leave. When I was there we had to leave at 8am or 10am every morning and couldn't be back till at least 8pm. Although more recently, they had the house open all day. I am not sure if they still do this today. It should also be stated that house meetings occur as well and you are required to be there unless you have work or an appointment which you must notify the staff of before hand. I was not in their TLP (Transitional Living Program) but I know people who have been in them. Its pretty much the same set up as the Emergency Housing Program except that you pay rent now until they can help you find an apartment of your own.
In the end, Ali Forney Center is a pretty good program to get in if you are homeless. The people are generally really trying to help you and push you to take advantage of those benefits. The only down side is the long waiting list to get in and for some people with no where to go this can be disheartening. Also, they should put more care in to people who live in their program and might be doing some of the work to get better on their own. They should instead of being put off by then not taking advantage of their own service, they should help, and make sure the person living there is actually doing what they say they are. If you would like more information on Ali Forney Center please visit their website which I have linked below:
http://www.aliforneycenter.org/
I am sure their are other services as well in New York but these are the two LGBT programs I was involved with. But I will say that if you are homeless and have no where to go to please try these programs. And now I'm going to put some of my own person hopes and wishes that I think could help LGBT Homeless Youth. I remember when I first became homeless and I left all I knew to go to New York City, a place where I was taught to be scared of as a child. The first day I got there I went to Sylvia's Place and was emotionally compromised to say the least. I urge and strongly must say this to anyone who works in the field of helping homeless youth. You must do this because you want to help these people. This is not a job for people who just need money. These kids are coming from a place where they feel they have lost everything and now must start over. It is your job to help them feel wanted and needed. I remember during the days I was homeless, I felt like my life was meaningless and being angry at everyone. It is hard to try and help someone who says they don't want help, but to be honest, you should help them regardless. I didn't want help when I became homeless and its because I didn't trust anyone and was just angry. When I was asked if I need help I instead of taking it just refused it. Long story short, I just feel that the kids need more help even if they don't request it. As someone who went through it, I feel on a certain level I can relate to them and understand what they are going through. If I had the chance I would work with homeless youth to help them feel they are important and wanted. I would treat everyone equally and not put anyone down for being more or less able to help themselves. A big problem is that in New York State funding is quite low for plans to help Homeless people, most of the money has to be made through fundraisers or donations. I believe as how much of an epidemic this is that we need more funding and more places for these kids to stay and its not going to get any better with the rise of cost of living in NYC. I think its very important to have programs to help these kids get benefits until they can get proper work, many kids are suffering because they have no Medical Insurance, Food Stamps, or Public Assistance. And its hard to get these things with people who work at HRA who don't even care about helping you. Most of the people who worked with me there were rude, gave me a hard time about serious issues which to them was joke, and don't seem to want to help anyone. People like this shouldn't be working in that position and more than likely have the position only to make money.
Right now I am living in Michigan because I myself did not want to go through the trials and trauma I had experienced when I was homeless. A majority of the time these kids spend is out in the world which for me was New York City and from someone who didn't have much money or food, it was not a very great place. Some of these kids who aren't able to find work, myself include, had to sell themselves using sexual favors. It is not only morally degrading, but it is extremely unsafe for them. The Gay Community in generally is known for advertising a majority of things with Sex. I think this is a huge problem and not only pushes kids within the shelter system to sell themselves sexually but to be extremely promiscuous which can cause them to be careless and put in contact with various STD's. I also had my stuff stolen (including clothing, CD's, bank card) by residents in the shelter system. I think what we are doing now to prevent these problems is a good starting place. But I feel that it must expand and grow, it is a serious issue that not many people notice or want to notice because they can't understand what its like. Just because you can't understand what its like doesn't mean you can't accept it and tolerate it. This is what Gay people expect of Straight people, so why can't we expect this from "normal" people who don't understand homeless youth?
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