Homelessness Disproportionately Affects the LGBTQ+ Community

-

 


Homelessness Disproportionately Affects the LGBTQ+ Community 


Portland is considered a city that is a bastion of human rights. LGBTQ+ people have long considered Portland to be a “safe” city where they can go about their lives free from the discriminatory policies in other, less friendly states. While this is true, the homeless population in Oregon, as it is with most places, continues to have an overrepresentation of LGBTQ+ people.


LGBTQ+ people face increased risk of discrimination in many aspects of their lives, and homelessness is unfortunately no exception. Data collected by The Williams Institute at UCLA in 2020 showed that nearly 17% of LGBTQ+ adults had experienced homelessness at some point in their life. That figure is more than twice the rate amongst the general, non-LGBTQ+ population. Transgender people in particular are at a much greater risk than other marginalized groups. More than 8% of trans people had experienced houselessness. That figure is significantly higher than the 2.5% of cisgender, queer people that have experienced homelessness and the 1.4% of cisgender, straight people that have experienced homelessness. 


Portland has a few small shelters, aid projects, and support services that are specifically for houseless LGBTQ+ people. There is Outside In, a local clinic that provides healthcare and housing services for LGBTQ youth. Rose Haven is a daytime only shelter and community center that provides aid specifically to women, children, and gender non-conforming people. PDX Trans Housing Coalition is a small organization that provides services through organized community events like clothing drives and food pantries. 


Given the current political climate, it is more important than ever that houseless trans and gender non-conforming people get adequate support in aiding them out of or preventing them from being homeless. You can help support homeless LGBTQ population in Portland by:


Sharing information, resources and increasing visibility: Increasing awareness of this issue is the first step in improving it. Making people in need of available resources is equally as important.

Making donations: Shelters and organizations are always in need of supplies such as clothing and food or even direct monetary donations. 

Volunteering your time at local shelters: A lot of shelters are understaffed and overused and could always use some extra hands.



SOURCES

https://www.oregonlive.com/living/2023/12/oregon-has-more-lgbtq-residents-per-capita-than-any-other-state-in-the-us-report.html

https://www.opb.org/article/2024/02/22/report-finds-queer-portlanders-in-need-of-more-housing-services/

https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2024/01/portland-area-needs-more-lgbtq-homeless-shelters-report-finds.html#:~:text=The%202022%20federally%20mandated%20point,housing%2C%20one%20resident's%20success%20story.

https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/LGBT-Adult-US-Pop-Dec-2023.pdf

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Domestic Violence within the Homeless Community

-
Image
  Domestic Violence within the Homeless Community Source: Unsplash The Facts                                                                                          According to  Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), 233,832 are people experiencing unsheltered homelessness in the United States. Of the 233,832, 50,767 are families with children.  Currently, 30% of homeless people are adult women.  (portlandoregon.gov)   Bradley Angle , which works to support survivors of  domestic violence , reported that 70% of domestic violence reports are from homeless women. ( www.kgw.com)  Homeless women are 1/3 of the fastest growing populations HUD homeless populations. ( portlandoregon.gov)   Specifically, in Por...
Read more

Air pollution caused by wildfires may increase risk of dementia

-
Image
  There are already more than 57 million dementia sufferers in the world, and by 2050, that figure is predicted to rise to 153 million. It is estimated that risk factors like exposure to air pollution account for up to 40% of these instances. Even when annual exposure was lower than the current EPA annual threshold of 12 micrograms per cubic meter of air (g/m3), the researchers discovered continuous evidence of a relationship between PM2.5 and dementia. The researchers discovered a 17% increase in risk for dementia for every 2 g/m3 increase in average yearly exposure to PM2.5, specifically among the studies using active case ascertainment. Despite the fact that the data was more sparse, they also discovered evidence supporting links between dementia and nitrogen oxide (5% increase in risk for every 10 g/m3 increase in yearly exposure) and nitrogen dioxide (2% increase in risk for every 10 g/m3 increase in annual exposure). According to a recent University of Michigan study, wildfi...
Read more

Understanding Homelessness

-
Image
  Source (American Addiction Centers)      Homelessness has a myriad of different reasons it can happen. The similarity between all scenarios in which a person is experiencing homelessness is that each person is human. A popular belief is that homelessness is a choice. People believe there is a set amount of circumstances that cause homelessness and that it is a choice not to fight to get out of those problems. The problems can range from mental health issues to drug addiction. There is no one size fits all, and it is not a choice.  Over the last few weeks, I have learned that there are many factors that can lead to homelessness. One big one that focuses on our class is how affordable housing, or the lack thereof, is a significant contributor to people not getting back on their feet. If you want to learn more about that subject and if affordable housing can help, click here.   This lack of affordable housing is a big roadblock for those trying to ove...
Read more