With the city’s homeless shelter system under historic strain from an influx of people seeking asylum, two recently introduced bills from the City Council aim to expand data collection about LGBTQ individuals in the system and make it easier for homeless youth to find a bed placement.
One bill would require quarterly reports on the number of LGBTQ people requesting beds and other services in both the youth and adult shelters — the first time this kind of data, including how many LGBTQ people have beds reserved for them, and how many are turned away, would be publicly available.
A second bill would allow all homeless and runaway youth up through 24 years old to apply for shelter beds in the adult system from one of several city-funded drop-in sites. If put into law, young people could avoid the marathon process of applying in-person for a bed at the main homeless shelter intake center and a likely monthslong wait at a shelter for single adults while they wait for a spot at a more specialized shelter to open up.
The bills come as New York City is also becoming a hub for LGBTQ youth leaving states with newly enacted laws limiting gender expression or reproductive rights, said Nadia Swanson, director of technical assistance and advocacy at The Ali Forney Center, a services provider for homeless youth.
Swanson added that collecting data on this group could show the need for greater investment in services tailored for them.
“Young people have to come to New York because their rights are being taken away in Kentucky, their rights are being taken away in Tennessee,” Swanson said. “It’s already a system that is underserved just for folks that are already here in New York, let alone an anticipated influx of people coming here for safe haven.”
Several states have taken action in recent years to restrict gender expression and access to reproductive services. Tennessee was one of the first states to extensively target transgender people with restrictive laws, while Kentucky lawmakers passed a bill last month that would effectively block access for transgender youth to gender transition services.
Swanson said the Ali Forney Center’s own internal numbers suggest that the number of youth needing temporary beds and help accessing permanent affordable housing is growing. In 2018, the center served about 1,500 young people through its drop-in center and emergency shelters. Last year, it was more than 2,000.
About 10% of their clients are from outside the United States, and most of those are refugees or people seeking asylum, Swanson said.
According to a report from Comptroller Brad Lander’s office, the city’s shelter population jumped from 48,547 in July of last year to nearly 71,000 in February, with nearly all of the increase coming from asylum seekers.
City Councilwoman Althea Stevens, who chairs the body’s committee on youth services and who introduced the two pieces of proposed legislation, said the bills came out of her discussions with service providers. She wants the bills to raise awareness around youth homelessness and LGBTQ homelessness.
“Because it's one of the issues that don't get talked about a lot, they don't get a lot of attention, which means they don't get funding,” Stevens said in an interview in her Bronx district office.
Currently, the city’s Department of Youth and Community Development tracks how many LGBTQ young people make use of the department’s funded temporary and more long-term beds, as well as 24-hour drop-in centers.
It’s one of the few metrics that DYCD tracks that the city’s Department of Homeless Services, which funds the adult shelter system, does not publicly report on, said Jamie Powlovich, the executive director of New York Coalition for Homeless Youth, an advocacy group.
Yet providers have pointed out for years that young people up to age 25 can access shelters across both systems, making data collection on LGBTQ youth who do so much less accurate.
“Now we’ll know youth data across systems, as well as for LGBTQ individuals experiencing homelessness in the DHS system,” Powlovich said.
The law, which currently has nine sponsors in the council, would not require anyone to disclose their identity if they choose not to do so, and would rely on voluntary questionnaires and at shelters and drop-in centers.
The second law, Powlovich said, would fix something of a loophole in the current DYCD system: While young people who are over 18 can apply for long-term shelter placements in the DHS system from their spot at a youth-only shelter, youth who make use of the 24-hour drop-in centers currently have to go through the full adult intake process.
That rule exists despite the fact that most of the New Yorkers accessing the drop-in centers are about to age out of the DYCD system, or may have mental health issues or substance abuse disorders that would benefit from placement at a specialized shelter.
The intake process can take hours, and may land someone at a temporary shelter for adults that does not have many or any of the vocational classes, medical care options, art therapy or other services that youth shelters strive to provide.
“Adults don't feel safe in those systems, so I don't know why we’d think youth, especially queer and trans youth, would feel safe,” Swanson said.
The bill would also have the effect of letting youth wait on their own terms for a bed placement, since providers are saying that the wait times for beds in the DHS system for eligible young people are extending out a month or more, Powlovich said.
“We know that our providers at the DYCD shelters and the youth shelters just provide a little bit more love and care, and sometimes that transition to adult shelters can be harsh,” Stevens said.
Mark Zustovich, a spokesman for the DYCD, declined to respond to emailed questions about whether the administration supports the two bills.
“Protecting our runaway, homeless, and LGBTQ+ youth and making sure they are connected to all of the services available in the city is a top priority of the administration," Zustovich said in an email statement. "We look forward to discussing these priorities with the City Council.”
Swanson said the bills could make the homeless system somewhat easier to navigate for young people and LGBTQ people — but they are downstream solutions for other civic problems that need to be addressed at their roots.
“Ultimately, to end homelessness, emergency housing beds are not it,” Swanson said. “We need permanent supportive housing. But until they’re able to make that happen, it's our duty to make sure that young people have a safe place to stay.”