Stonewall Housing

Shockingly, almost a quarter of homeless people are LGBT.

 


They represent a portion of the population, and a part of our community, who have been failed by the government and by society. It’s interesting, and quite telling, to consider the reasons behind this. It hints at a darker undertone to treatment of LGBT people in our allegedly liberal, free-thinking society.

In our drink-swilling, QX-thumbing bubble, it’s easy to forget a lot of gay men still suffer vicious persecution right on our doorsteps. Many are homeless because they were kicked out of their homes at a young age for being gay. Or because they lost their jobs for the same reason. Now the government is scrapping housing benefits for 18 to 21 year olds, which means things will only get worse.

Stonewall Housing is trying to help. They provide housing for young LGBT people in need, and also help them with issues happening in their own homes. As well as that, they give confidential housing advice through their hotline.

We asked Stonewall Housing Chief Executive Bob Green to tell us a little more about it.

“More people are calling us than ever before, having experienced domestic abuse, harassment or family breakdown,” he said “We provide support to young people in shared houses, and offer pan-London housing advice services which has achieved the Advice Quality Standard.”

“Stonewall Housing is now a referral agent for a number of hardship funds and foodbanks across London, which is especially important as more people approach us in extreme financial hardship, with a limited range of affordable housing options open to them. Future welfare reforms and changes to social housing may make this situation even worse, meaning many LGBT people may not be able to move to safe, affordable housing.”

“We need the support of our communities to grow our services and the core development of our organisation to ensure we can continue to create the high quality housing solutions that our communities need and dream of.”

• For more information, or if you know someone who needs help, go to www.stonewallhousing.com 

Advertisement

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here