In this podcast, student reporter Annie Bennett explores youth homelessness in Philadelphia’s LGBTQ+ community. She interviews experts, community activists and those who have experienced homelessness firsthand.
Communal Space at Colours Organization: Jaulie Cantave, a new employee, says, “One of the hardest parts about experiencing homelessness is not really having a place even just to relax. So we like to provide that space.” (Annie Bennett/NLGJA) 
Ark of Safety Front Desk: One of these friendly faces may greet you when you walk into the Ark of Safety shelter. After walking through a cluttered office and bustling entryway, youth can find peace in the back patio which has been dedicated as a zen space and is free from clutter and distractions. (Annie Bennett/NLGJA) 
Front of Gloria Casarez Residence: Markese Williams works here to provide services for 18-23-year-olds who need housing and other forms of assistance. He and his sister both left the house as teenagers after being discriminated against by their parents for being queer. (Annie Bennett/NLGJA) 
Ark of Safety Bedroom Wall: 24-year-old Ramar will age out of Ark of Safety next year. He was kicked out of the house as a teenager for being gay. The house where he has been staying, photographed here, has been a saving grace. Bedrooms and communal spaces fill every part of the center, providing a safe haven for Black and Brown queer kids and young adults. (Annie Bennett/NLGJA) 
Staircase at The Attic Youth Center: The lobby on 16th Street is covered in bright signs calling for community action and advertising LGBTQ+ services. A whiteboard outlined the schedule for September 5, 2023. A program on gender euphoria should start at 4 p.m., followed shortly after by a community dinner, among other things. (Annie Bennett/NLGJA) 
Ava, the House Dog: Ava provides emotional services for residents, says Tatyana Woodward, the shelter’s founder. A cat also roams around upstairs. The animals are collectively taken care of and enjoyed by everyone. (Annie Bennett/NLGJA) 
Valley Youth House’s Community Hub: Reuben Cherry says if he could take a megaphone and shout a message to the entirety of Philadelphia, he would simply say, “Take care of our young people.” (Annie Bennett/NLGJA) 
Tatyana Woodward is Always on the Move: As she balances tasks and averts crises, Woodward maintains a friendly demeanor and ensures everyone feels as welcome as possible. (Annie Bennett/NLGJA) 
Food for the Hungry: Reuben Cherry shows off the community fridge at Philadelphia’s Youth Valley House. Their Pride Programs offer specialized support for LGBTQ+ youth. The center’s “Couches Don’t Count” campaign highlights misconceptions about housing instability and emphasizes the house-hopping trend in which many people battling homelessness partake. (Annie Bennett/NLGJA) 
Welcome Home: Tatyana, Ark of Safety’s founder, and Miles, the Deputy Culinary Chef and Support Staff, stand outside the shelter. Behind them are two doors, one leading to the office, lobby, and zen garden, and the other leading to three floors of communal spaces and bedrooms. (Annie Bennett/NLGJA)
Annie Bennett: Even before she had to worry about where she would lay her head every night, Tatyana Woodward was living a life full of uncertainty.
Woodward: I come from a family who never experienced someone transitioning and someone identifying as being transgender. And it was a lot of bumps in the road. I left home, at first at the age of 14 feeling like nobody understood me. I know somebody out here feels the way I feel, like they’re stuck and trapped inside of a body and can’t stand looking in the mirror. And just gender dysphoria at the highest level I had.
AB: Her story isn’t unique. A disproportionately high number of homeless youth are LGBTQ+, but many of us don’t really know what that experience looks like. In 2018, Voices of Youth Count found that LGBTQ+ people are more than double as likely to be homeless.
Shamira: This all started back in 2020 when I first came out, and she didn’t want to have no gay child, whatever. And she’s giving me a hard time for no reason and she put me out when I was 13 and everything. She just didn’t want no trans kid. She didn’t want nothing to do with the LGBTQ or plus.
AB: That was 15 year old Shamira. She’s known she was transgender since she was eight. She, like many others, had to make a tough call. Do you stay in a house and agree to live as a different gender or sexuality, a false version of yourself? Or do you leave home? Voices of Youth Count said that LGBTQ+ homeless people are double as likely to be raped, discriminated against, and physically harmed than their straight, cis counterparts. Jasper Liem, the Executive Director of The Attic Youth Center, says kids who leave home or are kicked out face additional obstacles with being young and queer.
Liem: I would say at any given time at least a quarter of our youth are experiencing some form of housing instability. But we recognize that even if they are 18 and older, they might go to one of the shelters here in the city. And they may not feel comfortable or affirmed there. They are in a shelter with adults who are– a lot of them are not LGBTQ, a lot of them are significantly older than our youth. Right? So you have a 21 year old going into a shelter and experiencing homophobia or transphobia from someone who is in their 60s.
AB: That’s why Tatyana started the Ark of Safety homeless shelter for queer Black and Brown youth. She wanted to make a space like the one she could have used as a trans, homeless teenager. And she’s not alone. Many of Philly’s resource centers are actually employed by people who are LGBTQ+ and formerly homeless, allowing them to understand the reality of housing instability firsthand.
Woodward: I just started to do survival sex work, and I was living out of hotels, and then I remember not having enough money to keep a hotel. I was staying on friends’ couches, sleeping in bus stations, traveling from city to city to do sex work.
AB: Elijah Sumners of the Colours Organization says that this lifestyle is pretty typical. Homelessness for queer youth doesn’t often or even usually mean living on the streets or under an overpass. It could be as subtle as couch hopping with friends or hotel surfing.
Sumners: It’s like a parent or adult figure, whoever’s the head of household, either kicking them out or telling them that there’s not a place for them. Then they end up doing the whole couch surfing, house hopping thing. That’s why homelessness isn’t able to be tracked as properly I feel like because they are couch hopping and they’re not properly in the system the way most people are.
AB: This was the case for Shamira as well.
Shamira: Yeah, I was like house hopping and going to my friend’s house, staying in their house for weeks. My best friend house, my other best friend on the corner.
AB: Because of this interpersonal support network, finding a queer community is crucial for homeless youth. Ballroom culture, which emerged in New York City as an underground space for queer youth of color has persisted in Philadelphia since. Tatyana recalls her entry into the ballroom scene as a saving grace.
Woodward: I remember going to 13th Street, the gayborhood, for the first time. And I remember seeing these women who were like, the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen in my life. But it was something different about these women, right? I obtained what in the ballroom community we call a gay mother.
AB: Gay mothers and fathers take newcomers under their wings and are often the gateway into the urban queer scene. Reuben Cherry works for Valley Youth House after using their services herself as a teenager. She says that her gay dad’s support was invaluable when she was experiencing homelessness. Locating these communities can be a challenge. It takes a little bit of being in the know. So struggling youth will utilize word of mouth and queer centered spaces like Philly’s historic gayborhood and homeless resource centers to find out information. This struggle shows how for LGBTQ+ homeless youth, it’s not always the most basic needs that are lacking. Sumners explains that it could be anything from a place to rest, gender affirming clothes, or a support group that is really needed.
Sumners: As it stands right now. I just think homelessness in Philadelphia at large is less about trying to get peoples’ needs met versus just trying to help them be a full human being.
AB: The message that these activists have for politicians? Listen to the youth, they say, and don’t make assumptions. Everyday Tatyana Woodward tries to lend an ear to the evolving needs of her community, a courtesy that was rarely extended to her when she needed it most.
Woodward: We have to do more. And we need more buy-in to organizations like this that are ran by the people who are most affected by this. I went through it. I know what needs need to be met. And even though times are ever changing, our residents are the forefront of what programming looks like here. It’s based off of their needs, not based off of– excuse me– some white person who went to get a social worker degree and sit at a table and tell them, “This is what Black and Brown, trans folks, queer folks need.” They don’t know. They just read a textbook. Them textbooks will never, ever live up to lived experience. Never.
AB: This podcast was produced in correlation with the CONNECT student training project by Annie Bennett. For the Association of LGBTQ+ journalists, I’m Annie Bennett.