Ending homelessness is one of the greatest challenges that the city of San Francisco faces these days. It's also a challenge for the LGBT community since it disproportionately affects us.
Nearly one-third (29 percent) of the respondents in last year's homeless count said they identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual. An additional 3 percent said they're transgender. It was the first year that the survey, which is organized by the Local Homeless Coordinating Board, included questions about sexual orientation and gender identity.
The numbers may seem high (especially in a city where the queer population is usually estimated at 12 percent), but they're not. According to other studies, the numbers are higher, for instance, 40 percent of homeless youth in the city, and also nationally, are LGBT. Many of these young people sleep in the parks rather than risk harassment or anti-queer violence in the shelters. A 2007 Coalition on Homelessness study, "Shelter Shock: Abuse, Cruelty, and Neglect in San Francisco's Shelter System," reported that 70 percent of transgender people experienced harassment or violence.
LGBT homeless, like all those who live on the streets, also face citations or arrests under anti-panhandling and sit/lie laws, which puts them at risk of being turned down for housing. An unpaid citation turns into a bench warrant and can lead to arrest, which then becomes a "criminal" record. It's something the voters never consider when they approve measures that criminalize homeless people, rather than provide them with housing and services.
Three things have made poverty and homelessness in our community worse: the lack of action and financial support from the city and the politicians who represent us; the lack of action on the part of LGBT mainstream organizations that don't see these issues as their concerns; and the lack of adequate protection for tenants from speculators and investors who evict them for profit whenever the market is sizzling hot, as it is right now.
Since 1997, there have been almost 2,000 Ellis Act and owner move-in evictions in District 8, which includes the Castro area, according to the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project, a group that documents the displacement of tenants in San Francisco. It's the hardest hit area of the city, with tenants in 837 units Ellis Act-evicted, and 917 owner move-in-evicted since the days of the first dot-com boom.
Most of the evictions were of people with AIDS who had been in their apartments for years, some since the days of Harvey Milk, long-term tenants who were in the way of speculators wanting to make a huge profit flipping their buildings and turning them into tenancies in common. Many of those tenants ended up homeless or were forced to leave the city and the Castro because they couldn't afford the new high rents.
Where is the affordable housing in the neighborhood? The Castro area is currently seeing a lot of new construction, but none of the units being built will be affordable for homeless or low-income people within the community. The only affordable housing slated for the neighborhood is actually right on the outskirts, at 55 Laguna, where 110 units will be built for low-income seniors, including LGBTs. What's going to become of the Castro as more and more longtime LGBT renters are pushed out of their apartments and have no choice but to leave the neighborhood?
It's time that elected officials and LGBT mainstream organizations in this city get involved in addressing poverty and homelessness in our community. Next Wednesday, May 28 at 10 a.m. in Room 205 of City Hall, LGBT homelessness will be the focus of the latest in a series of hearings into homeless issues that is being held by the Board of Supervisors' budget and finance committee.
We urge homeless members of our community as well as service providers and advocates to speak out at the hearing. Let board members know what they need to do to help. Tell them we don't want any delays or excuses. We also urge directors and staff of mainstream LGBT organizations to come to the hearing as well. They can use this opportunity as a first step in getting involved in the issue.
While it's great that we as a community have won many gains in the past 40-something years since the Stonewall riots, including the right to marry, it's time we recognize that housing is a queer right that should be on everyone's agenda.
Tommi Avicolli Mecca works for the Housing Rights Committee of SF. Brian Basinger is founder and director of the AIDS Housing Alliance.