“They do not care where you end up” Young LGBTQ+ People’s Housing Rights
LGBT Youth Scotland
LGBT Youth Scotland and the Rock Trust were delighted to receive funding from the Independent Human Rights Fund, managed by the Corra Foundation. Research by AKT found that 1 in 4 LGBTQ+ young people will be homeless at some point in their lives. Our own work with young people reflected this reality, with many young people telling us that they couldn’t keep living at home because of a lack of acceptance of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
We worked with a group of wonderful young people aged 16-25 to undertake their own research project. The young people wanted to understand how much other LGBTQ+ young people knew about their housing rights – and whether their rights were being upheld when they found themselves homeless. After being provided with training in research and analysis skills, the group worked together to create, distribute and analyse a survey which was completed by 100 young people.
What we Found Out While 84% of the research participants knew they had the right to apply to their local council as homeless, they had very low awareness of some important rights. Only 50% of participants knew that they had the right to apply as homeless to any local authority in Scotland – despite the Scottish Government removing the requirement for a ‘local connection’ in 2022. The lack of awareness of this right could result in young people remaining in a community where they are at risk. Even more worryingly, only 39% knew they were able to contact their local authority in an emergency out of hours, risking them remaining in an unsafe situation for longer than they need to.
“Police Scotland referred me to the Out of Hours line when I approached them scared and confused. I didn’t know how to contact the council – their website was unclear, and I couldn’t see how I’d contact them after 5pm”
Participants were often not given information about their rights and were even given inaccurate information by council officers and other housing professionals such as landlords – preventing them from challenging unlawful practices.
“I got help from Action for Children to apply for council housing and I was of the understanding that this was open to those at risk of homelessness in the next month, however upon receiving a phone call from the person to assess me for this, she refused to speak to me more and stated “she could not understand at all” why I was applying for help as at that moment in time I had a roof over my head and wasn’t living on the street.”
The young people also found that council officers often lack understanding of the needs of LGBTQ+ young people which results in a lack of trust, young people facing discrimination and even being encouraged to return to dangerous situations.
“When trying to register as homeless they wouldn’t allow me to because I didn’t give them my parents contact information after they kicked me out at 19 because the found out I liked men”.
What We Want You to Do We want you to join us in making a difference to LGBTQ+ young people at risk of homelessness – wherever you work. LGBTQ+ young people are asking the Scottish Government to:
- Prevent young people from becoming homeless by investing in affordable housing
- Increase funding for supported homeless accommodation, and consider piloting a specialist project for LGBTQ+ young people
- Create a national toolkit to educate and inform young people about their housing rights
LGBTQ+ young people are asking local authorities to:
- Provide mandatory LGBTQ+ training to homeless case workers and housing officers
- Ensure that temporary accommodation they provide or commission is visibly welcoming to LGBTQ+ young people, and consider whether they need a specialist service
- Ensure their out of hours emergency number is clearly displayed on their website and other materials
- Ensure that council officers take clear steps to inform homeless applicants about their rights.
LGBTQ+ young people want the 3rd sector to;
- Work together to ensure that the voices of those who are affected by homelessness are heard by decision makers
- Create resources and deliver workshops on housing rights to ensure that their service users are empowered to understand their rights if they become homeless
- Continue to deliver advocacy and support services to homeless young people as this makes a huge difference
If you would like to find out more about the research and what you can do, email info@lgbtyouth.org.uk – we would love to chat to you! If you are a young person experiencing homelessness, you can get help from the Rock Trust.