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005
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j
k
Close to Home
For the first time in o decode,
homeless youth ore surveyed about
HIV prevalence and risk
SERVICIOS DISPONIBLES EN ESPAÑOL
5 0 3 517-3590
NW NEWS
j
A young woman in her early twenties
going by the name “Sabrina” for this story
was hopeful and surprised at the support
she received from her mother and stepfather
when she came out to them as a lesbian last
summer. But as Sabrina shared with her
mother more about her sexuality, her mother
began to think “it was all right for me to have
friends in the G L B T community, but not be
a part o f it,” Sabrina says.
Sitting in a conference room in New Av­
enues for Youth, a homeless-youth agency, Sa­
brinas clasped hands begin to clench.Her eyes
almost water as she continues thinking back to
her parents’ reactions to her sexual orientation
and the fact that she was dating another girl.
Unbeknownst to her stepfather, Sabrinas
partner was living with them that sum­
mer. Sabrina has never liked her stepfather
and never confided personal information to
him. She was in her room one night when,
through a shared vent, she heard her mother
and stepfather talking in their room.
“T just want you to know that [Sabrina’s
partner] is staying here,’” Sabrina remem­
bers her saying.
Then Sabrina heard the sounds o f her
stepfather “stomping” down the hall, where
he yelled from the top o f the stairs:
“You need to find a different place to live.
Pack your stuff up in 15 minutes.”
Sabrina and her partner found themselves
in a situation faced by an alarming number o f
youth who come out to their families as gay,
lesbian, bisexual or transgender: homeless.
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
refers to gay youth homelessness as an “epi­
demic,” and estimates that 20 to 40 percent o f
homeless youth identify as G LBT. Portland
has a disproportionately high number o f gay
youth, with 40 percent o f the 2,000 homeless
youth in Portland identifying as gay, lesbian,
bisexual, or transgender. “That’s quite large,”
says Kathy Oliver, executive director o f Out­
side In, an agency serving homeless youth.
Favor Ellis, program director o f the Sexual
Minorities Youth Resource Center, says that
30 to 50 percent o f the youth SM YRC serves
are homeless.
Sabrina and her partner found themselves
sleeping in the fields and underneath the
bridges of the Willamette Valley town they
lived in before coming to Portland. She re­
calls being rained on twice, and having her
possessions stolen.
After one month, Sabrina and her partner
came to Portland, where there were more
services, and more accepting o f the gay com­
munity. They spent one night on Portland’s
streets. The next day they were admitted into
a shelter operated by Janus Youth, another
homeless youth agency.
While she was on the street, Sabrina says
that she sometimes had “mean things” said to
her by others who knew she was a lesbian.
“I f you’re different, you tend to be target­
ed” on the streets, says Dennis Lundberg, an
associate director at Janus Youth. “GLBTQ_
youth are in that really tricky dynamic.”
“I was broken anyway for being criti­
cized for being gay and coming out,” says
Sabrina, who felt like a “smashed piece o f
glass” during that time. “But I’m not going
to change the way I am.*I chose to be gay,
because I’m happy.”
To be homeless and gay and young in
Pordand, say the sources and youth inter­
viewed for this story, is to live through a triple
whammy o f emotionally trying experiences
that test a youth’s indefinite sense o f self. It
is also to live a life more likely involving be­
ing targeted, exploited, discriminated against,
and exposed to experiences and behaviors
threatening one’s health and safety.
Serving a population difficult to reach out
to and engage, homeless and sexual-minority
agencies in Portland are currendy working
to survey homeless youth and gather an un­
precedented amount o f information to better
understand and assist that community.
The project is called the Homeless Youth
H IV Prevalence and Risk Behavior Study.
Cascade Aids Project (CAP) and Outside
In are partnering with consultation from
Dr. Todd Korthuis, the research director of
Oregon Health & Science University’s H IV
Clinic, to administer a survey to homeless
youth about their sexual activity and knowl­
edge o f H IV /AID S, as well as administer
rapid H IV tests.
It is the first time in 10 years that such in­
formation has been gathered about Portland’s
homeless youth. Data collection began on
January 11 and will continue for six weeks,
with results tentatively scheduled to be re­
leased in March.
“The question we have not been able to
answer is how many people in the home­
less youth population are H IV positive or at
risk o f becoming H IV positive,” says Kristin
Kane, C A P’s director o f support services. “No
agency knows about the HIV component of
homeless youth in our metropolitan area.”
Homeless youth, according to Kane and
others, are perhaps the population in Port­
land at the highest risk o f becoming infected
with HIV.
The reason, says New Avenues for Youth
Associate Director Sean Suib, is that “they’re
engaging in a lot o f survival behaviors that
put them at risk o f lots o f different health-
related issues.”