Data on youth homelessness is notoriously lacking. However, we estimate that around 550,000 youth under the age of 25 are homeless and on their own at some point each year. Most of these young people will experience brief episodes of homelessness. Others will experience longer episodes of homelessness and require more significant support.

While it’s still unclear whether youth who identify as LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, or Transgender) experience episodes of homelessness that are substantially different than their heterosexually-identified counterparts, a preponderance of the evidence clearly indicates that LGBT youth are over-represented in the homeless youth population. A small sampling of recent community-wide surveys of homeless youth in Houston, King County, Hollywood, and Minnesota found that LGB youth ranged from 12 percent to 35 percent of the overall homeless youth populations, while and transgender youth ranged from 1 percent to 7 percent of the homeless youth population.

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Each year the Victory Institute gathers LGBT elected and appointed officials from across the nation for its LGBT International Leadership Conference, where they discuss issues facing the LGBT community. This year I was invited to talk to these decision makers about LGBT homelessness. It was a fantastic opportunity to raise awareness of the plight of unaccompanied young people and, with such an esteemed group of individuals on hand, the occasion called for something more impactful than a typical PowerPoint presentation.

It was time to roll out the LGBTQ Youth Homelessness Simulation that Ed SanFilippo (the Alliance’s Policy Fellow) and I had been developing.

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