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August 1-7, 2013 • Bay Area Reporter • 9
SF remains a magnet for LGBT youth by Matthew S. Bajko
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t the age of 18 Seth Smith boarded a bus from his hometown of Prescott, Arizona headed for San Francisco in hopes of finding a more welcoming environment. The gay teenager was tired of hearing his mother denigrate homosexuals due to her religious beliefs. Despite having never been to the city, Smith was confident San Francisco was where he needed to be. “I really wanted to find myself,” recalled Smith about his spur-ofthe-moment decision while still in high school to uproot himself from the life he had known. His money for a hotel room ran out within four days and Smith lugged his three suitcases to the gay Castro district. His first night on the street he slept in front of the now vacant restaurant space at the corner of Church and Market streets. “Before that time I had never been homeless,” said Smith, now 23 with his own computer technology consulting business called Desktop Success IT. “I remember wondering why nobody asked me why I was on the street. I picked that spot because I thought it would be safe, and it was.” A few days later, hungry and penniless, Smith tried to steal a sandwich from a Castro grocery store. A security guard caught him, and instead of pressing charges, she let him keep the food and called Larkin Street Youth Services on his behalf. The agency was able to assign him a bed at its Diamond Youth Shelter. Because that program is meant for youth ages 12 to 17, Smith was then transferred to the Lark Inn, a shelter for youth age 18 to 24. He later was assigned a room at the agency’s Routz housing for youth dealing with mental health issues. “Things were going well. Then my mom asked me to live near her,” said Smith, who agreed to relocate and found his own apartment in Phoenix. But a payment glitch that made him late with his rent led him to return to San Francisco and once again be out on the streets. Within four months, however, he was back living at Routz, where he has been since November 2011. Asked where he would be without the services provided by Larkin, Smith said, “Honestly, I would probably be dead. Sadly that is true, or in jail.” He will be required to move out of his current housing this November due to aging out of the program. He hopes to be able to find a place on his own in the city but has thought of moving to Vallejo where rents are cheaper. “My goal is to major in psychology and computer science,” said Smith, either at San Francisco State University or UC Berkeley. He is not alone in looking to San Francisco and the supportive services for LGBT youth that the city and local donors fund to assist him with housing, education, and employment. All of Larkin’s housing programs have wait lists, with the average time to be admitted ranging between a month to six months. Over the years Smith has met youth from all across the country who, despite the high cost of living in San Francisco, move to town because they have heard about programs such as Larkin Street. The agency, said Smith, “has so many programs and opportunities for youth, there isn’t anything Larkin couldn’t do to get them into stable housing or have a job.” According to the biennial San Francisco Homeless Point-In-Time
Rick Gerharter
Seth Smith has received help through Larkin Street Youth Services.
Count and Survey released in June, of the 1,902 unaccompanied children and youth living on the city’s streets roughly 29 percent identified as LGBTQ. The overwhelming majority was over the age of 18, nearly three quarters (72 percent) were male, and one-in-four had been in the foster care system. “The number that shows up in the homeless count is fairly consistent with what we have experienced over the years,” said Larkin Executive Director Sherilyn Adams, whose agency provides services to youth regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity. “What I hope is the city, which I think has historically been good about the creation of housing, sees it needs to develop additional housing and supports for youth and LGBTQ youth. I hope the homeless count numbers also helps inform state and federal policy and resource allocation.” San Francisco officials did allocate in the 2013 fiscal year budget roughly $274,000 to expand Larkin’s Castro Youth Housing Initiative. The board also set aside $85,000 for Larkin to increase its outreach services. “It is all subject to negotiation” with the city’s Human Services Agency, said Adams. “We hope to be able to sustain our existing services and outreach and potentially expand to make sure we are able to expand those new units of housing.” For close to a decade the agency has leased rooms at the Perramont Hotel on Market Street near Sanchez specifically to house LGBT youth. It currently has 15 rooms at the site and is in negotiations with owner Peter Patel to lease an additional 10 rooms. “It is great news we get to expand the housing, but it is not nearly enough to meet the need. There is an abundance of need for different types of housing for homeless queer youth,” said Adams, adding that the city has “made strides” in recent years in expanding housing for youth. “I think we still have a significant gap between need and capacity,” she added. “My hope is as the economic recovery continues we are thoughtful in our investments in young people.” One goal is to have Larkin master-lease the Perramont, which has 32 units though four are rented by long-term tenants, and staff the front-desk, which would address management issues at the hotel that the youth tenants have complained about over the years, said Bevan Dufty, a gay man who is director of Housing Opportunity, Partnerships and Engagement for Mayor Ed Lee. “There has been some conflict with the family he has running the hotel and the youth,” said Dufty, who helped launch the housing pro-
gram when he was on the Board of Supervisors. He has been trying to find additional sites in the city that would be designated housing for LGBT youth. A deal to lease a building in the Outer Mission this year fell through, said Dufty, when the owner declined to pursue the needed city permits. But he did assist with locating a building south of Market for additional housing for youth, both LGBT and straight, aging out of the foster care system. Dufty added that he continues to “look at opportunities going forward” for additional housing for youth as it will be an ongoing need. “I think they want to come to San Francisco; that is true for many of us,” said Dufty. “I don’t think they come here out of a sense, ‘Oh, there is a service.’ I don’t think they have any sense of how difficult it is to gain a toehold here.” Rather, said Dufty, “They come with optimism. We need to meet them and reach out a helping hand in a way that doesn’t cause them to fall into an extended cycle of homelessness.” Mannequin, 23, who use one name and identifies as same-gender loving, grew up in Atlanta and moved to San Francisco three years ago. At first housed through the college he was attending, he later found housing through Larkin’s Castro Street Youth Initiative. “Living in San Francisco it is not that hard. Having to deal with such a small living space is pretty hard,” said Mannequin, a nightclub singer who earned an associate degree in broadcast and electronic media. “Given the circumstances and all the resources I have, life is pretty sweet.” Because he doesn’t work a 9-to-5 job, Mannequin said he is able to live comfortably and pursue his music career due to Larkin’s programs. “Nobody wants to work just to pay rent. Larkin helps youth still live comfortably,” said Mannequin, who is looking to move next summer either to New York City, Atlanta or Los Angeles to further pursue a music career. When he does and his room opens up, there will be no shortage of youth ready to move into it. San Francisco will always be a magnet for youth looking for a better life, said Justin Reed Early, 43, who lived on the streets starting in his late teens in both Seattle and San Francisco. “My experience has been that a lot of homeless youth always migrated west. I think for the sunshine aspect and I think typically for safer environments,” said Early, who published a memoir in 2010 called Street Child that he donates copies of to youth service providers and LGBT centers around the country. “Seattle has always been a place homeless youth congregated just like San Francisco. When I was on the streets, I definitely knew San Francisco had more services.” Having spent the last three years speaking to youth groups about his experiences on the street – he ended up getting help at Walden House for his drug addictions and became a DJ at gay clubs and a cofounder of Bay Area Young Positives – Early said he believes that San Francisco is “one of the most advanced cities” in terms of offering services to youth who are homeless. “I think San Francisco is more progressive and advanced when it comes to dealing with the homeless system,” said Early, noting that the majority of homeless youth “are starving to do well in their lives. They are starving to have someone love them and care about them.”t