NYC Turns Cold Toward Homeless Youths

Last Friday, New York City abruptly notified advocates for homeless LGBTQ youths of proposed cuts to drop-in and street outreach services that provide a lifeline to one of the city's most vulnerable populations.

In e-mails that took contractees by surprise the day after Thanksgiving, the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development announced that because of city and state budget cutbacks, the agency would reduce its expenditures for runaway and homeless youth services by $969,407 in the current 2011 fiscal year and by an additional $700,000 in the fiscal year 2012.

The midyear cuts affect organizations that serve the estimated 3,800 youths of all orientations who, according to a 2008 New York City council census, struggle to survive on the city's streets on a typical night. However, given the brute facts about the homelessness problem, advocates said that LGBTQ youths and the organizations that cater to them would be disproportionately affected. As many as 40% of homeless youths, the majority of whom are youths of color, are believed to be LGBTQ, and among that population, more than 60% have attempted suicide.

Such jarring statistics prompted the work of a 25-member commission appointed last year by Mayor Michael Bloomberg to address the epidemic of homelessness among LGBTQ youths. The commission found a need for expanded drop-in center hours and street outreach, which made for an awkward presentation in Manhattan on Wednesday evening when, just five days after DYCD announced the proposed cuts, the commission presented the last of five forums held in every borough over the past month to publicize its final report.

"Reducing this support will leave LGBTQ youth stranded on our streets without support," said Carl Siciliano, executive director of the Ali Forney Center, who read from a draft letter to be sent from his fellow commission members to Mayor Bloomberg and DYCD commissioner Jeanne B. Mullgrav. "Many will turn to drugs and prostitution to survive, and many will become HIV-infected and involved in the criminal justice system, outcomes that will cost far more to the city than will be saved through these cuts."

Siciliano noted that the evening marked the 17th anniversary of the murder of Ali Forney, the homeless LGBTQ youth advocate stabbed to death in Harlem in 1993, for whom the service organization is named.

In addition to the Ali Forney Center, LGBTQ-focused organizations affected by the proposed cuts include the Bronx Community Pride Center; both stand to lose 50% of the city funds that support their drop-in programs. The two groups, already reeling from sharp decreases in federal and other supports, said their reductions would represent $185,000 of the nearly $1 million in proposed cuts this fiscal year.

"We understand the budget has to be trimmed, but we're incredulous," said Dirk McCall, the executive director of the Bronx Community Pride Center. "It's totally counterproductive to issue this wonderful report and then take away the mechanism by which we'd implement it."

The Bronx Community Pride Center serves the borough where a brutal gang-related antigay torture took place against two teenagers and an older gay man and his brother in October.

One youth affiliated with the center held a sign at the Manhattan forum in protest of the proposed cuts that read, "The City Council giveth. DYCD taketh away."

Outrage over the proposed cuts also found its way onto the Web and into older generations. LGBT activist David Mixner, who lives in New York City, wrote on his blog Thursday, "Considering the current epidemic of young suicides, it is not the time to balance the city's budget on the back of our young people. They are the most vulnerable and most helpless in these very challenging times for our community."

DYCD positioned the cuts as the least terrible choice among a range of bad options. The agency noted that in eight previous rounds of budget reductions, services for runaway and homeless youths had been spared.

"It's very difficult," said Susan Haskell, the assistant commissioner for vulnerable and special needs youth, in an interview after the forum. "I feel like we made the best decision for young people in that some of the street outreach services and to some extent the drop-in centers are going to be hit really hard, especially in this fiscal year, but I'm proud that we're able to preserve shelter beds and transitional independent living beds which we've spent the past four years working really hard to develop."

The preservation of shelter beds offered cold comfort to advocates, who said that too few beds exist, and noted that because of perceived barriers to shelter access, many LGBTQ youths rely on the drop-in centers and street outreach, which the proposed cuts would devastate. Advocates and allies like Manhattan borough president Scott Stringer, who also spoke at the forum, attended by about 75 people, vowed to find a way to stop the cuts, whether through negotiation or more creative means.

Siciliano said, "I will set up tents in front of City Hall and on Mayor Bloomberg's street and we will do our drop-ins there."

A spokesman for Mayor Bloomberg declined to comment on the proposed cuts.

While Assistant Commissioner Haskell refused to speculate on any possible ways to avoid the cuts, a letter circulated by city council speaker Christine Quinn at the forum mentioned ideas for "alternative savings measures" such as postponing some programmatic evaluations and eliminating redundant positions at other city agencies. These and other possibilities are likely to be discussed Monday morning at a city council hearing on the proposed cuts for homeless and runaway youth services.

"I can't emphasize strongly enough that potential cuts should not be made on the most vulnerable of our citizens," wrote Quinn. "If we as elected officials don't advocate for the most vulnerable, then there is little for us to do."