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homelessness

LGBTQIA+ homelessness cannot be solved if we don’t recognise it 

On Monday 17.10 is the international day for the eradication of poverty – on this occasion, the 20th night of the homeless is taking place in Finland. Seta’s international affairs committee interviewed two experts by experience about the meaning of “home” and ways to prevent homelessness among the LGBTQIA+ community. 

TW: the text contains mentions of sexual assault and violence.

What does “home” mean to you?

Arvi: Home means everything, and it makes everything possible.

Home is a place of safety and escape – the importance of which was even more pronounced when Arvi was in mental health rehabilitation, and he was in need of a place of safety to retreat to, since he was not always able to be in the company of other people.

In his own words, Arvi states that he was experiencing “hidden homelessness”. He worked while experiencing homelessness; now he thinks that he wouldn’t accept school or a job in a similar situation anymore.

“The first point that makes everything possible is having a home”

According to Arvi, the absence of a place to call home also has a great impact on a person’s mental health, as homelessness creates constant stress and insecurity. Arvi spent nights with his friends when he was homeless.

Juha: Home is my own space, to which I have the key and control. It is a space to think and calm down. Home is a place where a LGBTQIA+ persons can start a safe family.

Juha became homeless five years ago due to a system error.

When Juha applied for financial support for housing, the application was not registered, and consequently, a decision could not be made. As a result, Juha lost his rental apartment and was left with nothing. Since then, Juha has struggled in the twists and turns of the Finnish bureaucracy and service system.

Did you have difficulties in finding a home? What happened?

“It has been a lot of trouble to find my own home”

Arvi is silent for a moment and thinks aloud how to express it briefly, but starts by telling that he is transgender, has transitioned, and is a former drug addict.

2016 is a turning point in Arvi’s life: that’s when started drug replacement therapy. Before durg replacement therapy, Arvi had been homeless and he was still homeless when starting therapy.  After entering treatment, however, things gradually started to change – but his credit information had gone bad and he had been flagged in the national credit register, which made it difficult to find a home.

Arvi says that there are cities in which it is practically impossible to find a home with his background. Fortunately, he got into Oulu University, and through his studies was fast-tracked to get a home. Arvi considers student status to be an important matter and a way to get a home. It was the longest term Arvi has had and he was able to keep it during his studies.

When he had to move out after graduating, he again faced a difficult process of finding an apartment.

Arvi says that getting an apartment in the capital region feels impossible considering his background. That’s why he doesn’t dream of working or studying in Helsinki, since it would mean a long commute.

“It’s interesting how things that happened a long time ago, that don’t say anything about me today, are still having a heavy impact. ”

Arvi hopes that the law reform concerning the credit register comes into force; this would remove the flags in the credit register related to credit/payment failures that happened a long time ago.

However, Arvi says that he is lucky that he is “passing”, meaning that Arvi passes for a man and people cannot tell he is trans.

However, Arvi continues by saying that when looking for work, people with a trans background are sorted out first, and when there is no work, it becomes even more difficult to get an apartment.

Finding an apartment wasn’t a problem for Juha, but as a gay man experiencing homelessness, he has encountered many shortcomings in the service system.

“When I was homeless, I ended up having to shout at the social services, ‘I’m gay’.”

“Due to an error in the system, I ended up in a systemic failure condition. So, an error occurring in Kela’s system messed up my socio-economic situation. System errors occur, when the authorities do not meet the client, when the authorities do not cooperate with each other, and when legislation transfers the client from one place to another; rendering the client outside or on the fringes of the system.”

Juha says that when dealing with housing services, he faced stigmatization, and neither his individual support needs nor his identity were not taken into account. A big part of those experiencing homelessness are cis men dealing with a substance abuse problem.

Juha has faced violence and sexual violence in housing units because of his sexuality. He emphasizes that it is safer for him to be in the drug-free housing unit of the Diakonia Institute.

Juha has also experienced injustice in health care: He has not been able to access the HIV medication he needs because he is homeless, which has been interpreted as a risk because he may not have a safe place to store his medication. HIV medication should be taken at the same time every day, because taking medication irregularly can cause drug resistance.

“I live without HIV medication because of my situation, because I do not have a substance abuse problem, but I am gay, I have had to come out of the closet on the front page of Iltalehti, trying to get help. I have experienced five  physical assaults and 11 situations of sexual violence in homelessness. I have been dissed when I tried to report sexual violence. It is impossible to describe the amount of mental violence one experiences as a homeless LGBTQIA person.

The worst was when I was placed in the countryside after a very brutal act of revenge: I was sent to the countryside, I didn’t meet any LGBTQIA+ people for over a year, I wasn’t allowed to talk about my sexuality. I experienced repeated sexual violence.”

What do you think should be improved? What should politicians do?

More education about different minority groups would be needed. It’s not about any special needs, but different needs.

As a trans person, it is also difficult to get services and help.

In his own words, Arvi lived in limbo and didn’t know what to do. Arvi didn’t want to seek treatment or help due to minority stress. More representatives of minorities would be needed for expert positions, so that help can be given by someone with authentic  understanding of the group in question.

“I didn’t want to make myself feel worse”

Arvi remembers that in Oulu, the drug replacement care facility had a rainbow flag. This stuck in Arvi’s mind. “You didn’t have to explain yourself in the same way, people had received training and that reduced my stress considerably.”

It would also be important to study and map out long-term homeless.

Arvi points out that the trans perspective has been an invisible and silenced topic in the discussion of homelessness.

Arvi also points out that different groups of people experience homelessness in different ways, there is no one absolute way. It’s different to be a homeless cis-straight woman with substance abuse issues from being a cis-straight man, or a trans person.

Arvi would like you to stop and ask “what could be done about your specific situation”

Juha himself is actively involved in finding and building solutions. He is e.g. a candidate in next year’s parliamentary elections, and he has recently founded Saatenkaari-ikkuna ry with other people, which works to prevent LGBTQIA homelessness.

“I myself have stepped into politics and organization activities. I have a continuous discussion on the topic with other decision-makers. Homelessness is not a disease but a consequence.”

Juha also mentions an upcoming initiative, which focuses on homelessness caused by reasons other than substance abuse and mental health problems. He states that there should be a housing unit where people experiencing homelessness are treated equitably and met as human beings, and everyone feels safe. No one should feel like they are being forced to come out.

Juha also points out that there are shortcomings in the service system and that different institutions do not communicate with each other. He emphasises the shortcoming of assuming that all those experiencing homelessness have a substance abuse problem. He hopes that the service system takes people’s identity and individual needs into account.

“In Helsinki, homelessness is divided between adult social work and substance abuse work and psychiatric work. Adult social work buys outsourced services, and they are often dangerous for LGBTQIA+ people. I have had to obtain a medical certificate in 2020 about my homosexuality, stating I do not have a substance abuse or mental health problem. My situation continues because the authorities are afraid of admitting their mistake.”

Lastly, Juha stresses the vulnerable position of LGBTQIA+ people:

“LGBTQIA+ people experiencing homelessness significantly more often than others due to the lack of a support network (family). According to a Spanish study,, LGBTQIA+ people experiencing homelessness face 12 times as much sexual violence than other homeless people. In a situation of sexual assault, the LGBTQIA+  person experiencing homelessnes as a victim, is likely to be made the culprit. If I were raped, and the rapist would contract HIV, I would probably be convicted for spreading it, even if I were the victim.”

LGBTIQ homelessness is a hidden phenomenon

This weekend on 17th of October we are focusing on homelessness. Seta´s Commitee of International Affairs interviewed two experts on LGBTIQ homelessness. 

Robbie Stakelum is a policy officer with FEANTSA, the European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless and is responsible for the LGBTIQ perspective. Sari Rantaniemi works with LGBTIQ homelessness at Diakonissalaitos. 

Robbie’s interview on video is in English and it is also in written form below. Sari´s interview is translated also below. Both interviews in Finnish here.

Robbie Stakelum, policy officer with FEANTSA, the European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless

I am a Robbie Stakelum, policy officer with FEANTSA, the European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless and I lead on our work on LGBTIQ homelessness.

Why should service providers and policymakers in Europe  pay more attention to LGBTQ youth homelessness and what are the reasons for LGBTQ youth homelessness?

I think it’s really important that homeless service providers and policy makers start focusing more on LGBTQ issues within our broader work on the topic of homelessness. We know from data, that we’ve had for many years from North America, that between 20 to 40% of young people experiencing homelessness identify as LGBTIQ. In the last year, we have gotten data from the Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) which gives us a very similar insight into to the extent of LGBTIQ homelessness in Europe. For example, the FRA estimates that about 1 in 5 LGBTIQ people have had and experienced homelessness, they estimate that 1 in 3 trans people have had experiences of homelessness and this rises to about 40% of intersex people. And I think, the challenge that we face in our work as a homeless sector, is that often we hear and we see these figures and they feel very out of sync with our reality. Because LGBTIQ homelessness is also a hidden form of homelessness. We know for example when LGBTIQ people come into services, they often don’t feel safe. They have experiences of homophobia and transphobia. We know there is an intersection between their sexual orientation and gender identity and other experiences of racism, misogyny, sexism etc. 

If you ask a homelessness providers, ‘how many people do you work with who identify as LGBTIQ’, they would say ‘very little’. And yet we have independent research that across North America and Europe shows us that LGBTIQ people are way overrepresented within our services. The causes for that are many, and the triggers of homelessness can be very very different for many different people. We know that there are causes around coming out and families evicting young people. For example, when they come out as gay/lesbian or when they are starting transition that can also be a trigger for young people to be formally evicted from their families into homelessness. 

We also know that LGBTIQ young people experience discrimination in the rental market, so even when they go to the rental market in certain countries, they can’t get a rental lease, if they’re seen as particularly queer – for lack of a better phrase – or landlords don’t want to rent to them or people who are living in apartments don’t want to bring in another housemate who might seem different to them. So, we see further experiences of homophobia and transphobia. 

What solutions do you propose, based on your work, to tackle the issue of LGBTQ youth homelessness in Europe?

In terms of what can actually be done, we know there is lots of experiences from France, England, the United States and Canada around creating services that are more inclusive. And so, on the surface of that, that can mean having a statement of inclusivity on display, it can mean having a rainbow flag, it might mean having queer art, it’s about creating a space when an LGBTIQ young person walks into it, they feel like this is an environment that’s for me. 

but it’s more than that. You can’t just smack a rainbow flag up on a wall, and say that’s it, we’re done, we’re inclusive. You need to do trainings, you have to do trainings –  and not just with social workers and the people who work with young people, we need to do it with social workers, all the staff of the centres: board of directors, senior management so that everybody fundamentally understands LGBTIQ identity because the specific needs that come from that community have to be met and understood by everybody for the service to really be inclusive and to empower those people to speak about their sexual orientation and gender identity.

I think, when we look at what can we all be doing around LGBTIQ homelessness: Better data collection, better training for homeless services, monitoring what is available in terms of service provision: do we have enough housing, what is the type of housing we have created, is it segregated, is it trans inclusive, have we created health services that trans people can access? Do we have partnerships with the right mental health professionals that can provide the needed support in an inclusive way? 

Sari Rantaniemi, Diakonissalaitos

Hey! My name is Sari Rantaniemi and I work at Deaconess Foundation. I am developing homeless work there. I use they/ them pronouns.

According to ARA statistics, there were more than 4,300 homeless people in Finland in 2020, and 850 of them were young people under the age of 25.

According to a study by the Fundamental Rights Agency , there is also homelessness among LGBTIQ people in Finland, i.e. every 5th LGBTIQ person has experienced homelessness or the threat of homelessness in their lives. For transgender people, this is about 30%.

The government wants to eliminate homelessness in Finland by 2027, meaning that everyone has their own home by then. This means also that homelessness among LGBTIQ people must be identified and everything related to it must be looked at, as well as how LGBTIQ people can be supported.

The situation of young people in particular is vulnerable, as they become independent and move away from home in a situation where they may still need social or even financial support, e.g. from their parents.

Also, not everyone may have adequate housing skills or an understanding of what it means to run their own household and finances. If there is no such support from home, young people are pretty alone.

The biggest reason for LGBTIQ youth homelessness and threat of homelessness is broken family relationships. It is really difficult for some parents to accept the identity of their children, and this can lead to the young person experiencing both mental and physical violence at home.

In addition, at school or hobbies or at the place of residence, LGBTIQ youth may face bullying and discrimination, all of which then affect the fact that LGBTIQ youth move away from home earlier than other youth.

In order for us to achieve the goal of everyone having their own home here in Finland in a few years’ time, I think we should also recognize the issue of LGBTIQ homelessness and what it means here in Finland – and more information and research is needed on this issue.

Rainbow people under-utilize social and health services and that is why I would also like our SOTE staff to be trained on LGBTIQ issues as well, such as what minority stress means and how it affects everyday functioning.

Youths would benefit from low-threshold services, which it would be easy and safe for a LGBTIQ youth to come to, as well as hands-on support that accompanies them, to have someone accompany them to services, if they have a hard time going there alone.

Then, I also think that we need a change in the attitudes of all of us: these young people often experience multiple grounds of discrimination, and the stigma of homelessness should be reduced. Homelessness is not anyone’s personal choice, neither does it define a person, but it is only a situation in life, and this is also the case for LGBTIQ persons.