A place to call home
Getting gay youths off the streets

The number of self-identified gay male youth who are homeless in Ottawa is alarmingly high and causing some concern. According to Bob MacDonald, a program coordinator of Housing Help and director of a new program called Host Home, his estimates parallel findings done in the United States, which show that as many as 42 per-cent of street youth are gay.

The main reason why so many gay teens are on the street is that they don’t want to use the housing services like shelters and rooming houses that exist to help.

“It is very rare that a young gay man would come out in a men’s shelter,” says MacDonald. “They just don’t feel safe going there because of homophobic staff and residents. And could you imagine being trans-gender and being told to share a room full of strangers?”

Concerned that the street leaves gay youth in a very vulnerable position – putting them at high risks of HIV infection, sub-stance abuse, violence, prostitution and suicide – MacDonald started Host Home to address the special concerns that homeless gay youth face.

“The risk of having a kid sleep on the street is not a risk I’m willing to take any-more,” says MacDonald passionately.

Through the Host Home program, gay youth from the ages of 16 to 24 who have nowhere else to go are placed in the home of a gay individual or couple.

Both the youth and the host(s) are screened carefully through interview processes to assess their compatibility. Hosts fill in an application, provide references and undergo a criminal check. MacDonald also makes at least one home visit to determine the motives of the host and have a better idea as to what the home environment is like.

“With the youths,” says MacDonald, “it’s more difficult. I have to spend a lot of time asking open-ended questions so that I can verify the story of the youth. I need to know if there are any holes in their stories and feel very comfortable before I can place a youth in someone’s home.”

Currently, Host Home has three houses secured and another two being negotiated. Of the five youths that have been considered for the program thus far, three have been deemed unsuitable for the program and have been rejected, and the other two are waiting to be placed in a Host Home. One of these two youths is staying with the parents of a friend while he awaits his placement in a home that allows him to stay in his current high school.

The program, funded in part by the City of Ottawa and Human Resources Canada, is aiming for 10 transitional or long-term houses, and five respite homes where youth can stay for a day or so until a particularly difficult crisis subsides.

“The ideal home environment would be a gay couple that’s doing well for them-selves, who live in a safe community where it’s safe for them to be out, and are happy and comfortable. We want a stable environment that youth could really benefit from.” MacDonald would also be pleased to see a gay individual or a straight couple becoming a host, but what’s most important is that they have “some familiarity with some of the issues [gay men have] and some experience that they could pass on to the youth.

“What’s positive is that people are opening up their own homes. For them, money isn’t an issue. They’re doing it for very personal reasons. This can be very fulfilling to a lot of couples to have a young person in their home, to help them and give them a little bit of guidance in their life. They can help the youth get past this crisis stage and help them feel good about themselves.”

While Host Home can be a good solution for some, MacDonald wishes that the problem could be solved before it becomes a problem in the first place. “We need to educate the schools, the churches, but we also need to reach the parents themselves. They need to talk to their kids about sexual orientation and other issues.

“Youth are dealing with their sexuality at earlier ages, but it’s the parents that are having a hard time with it,” says MacDonald. “If a child is thrown out of their home for no other reason than the fact that they are GLBT, then I feel they become part of our community. They become our kids. We want to see them safe, we want to see them healthy, we want to see them off the street and we want to keep them in this community with the support they need.”

- printed in Capital Xtra, Issue #103, Mar 1, 2002. Photo of Bob MacDonald by Colin Seaman.