Thanks to CityLab for highlighting the unique struggles that transgender young people experiencing homelessness face. According to the article, an estimated 40% of unhoused youth in the U.S. identify as LGBTQ, and in some California cities, that proportion is higher. The 2019 Point In Time Count also showed that 46% of all unhoused youth are LGBTQ and nearly a quarter identify as transgender and non-binary. Our new housing for transgender young people is a step toward reducing these disparities.

Here is an excerpt from the article which covers this important issue:

“It’s a client-led path, so the clients will tell us what they want, and we’ll help them work on it,” said Larkin Street’s [Christopher] Rodriguez, who is also the director of the house. “The ideal would be they go to a two-year college, work in a coffee shop in the weekends, save up some money, and at the end of two years, they’ll get their [associate] degree, we’ll give them back their savings account, they’ll move into a roommate situation with a friend that they met in our program … and just move on. And have only one experience of homelessness.”

For more, read the full article from CityLab.