Doug PollardHelp for young GLBTIQ homeless
Transcript, Emily Todorov, Family Access Network, Freshly Doug 23/9/2010
DOUG: We all know homelessness can be something of a problem for same-sex attracted young people, transgender and intersex as well. Particularly when they come out to their families. However, there is in fact some help available here in Victoria and it comes from the Family Access Network and Emily joins us on the line now. Good morning, Emily.
EMILY: Good morning, Doug.
DOUG: I understand you are able to help same-sex attracted, transgender and intersex young people who are having some kind of housing crisis?
EMILY: Yes - - -
DOUG: Can you tell us how that works?
EMILY: - - - we have the Allsorts Programme. It came about in 2006 and it’s a response to homelessness of same-sex attracted young people. We provide a range of services, we’ve also got two properties that are specifically for this group of young people - - -
DOUG: Right.
EMILY: It provides transitional housing; so, somewhere where they can have a short-term lease and a case managed response to help them get back on-track and secure longer term housing.
DOUG: This is if they’re in some kind of emergency situation?
EMILY: Not necessarily. For an emergency situation we have places where we can house them for a few nights, in a motel. But it’s more - - -
DOUG: Right – this is the transition from emergency to something a little more stable?
EMILY: - - - yeah.
DOUG: Yeah. How long would they be in this transitional - - -
EMILY: Oh, it varies – m’mm, depending on their needs.
DOUG: - - - m’mm, m’mm.
EMILY: Leases start at around three months, they can go six months even to a year.
DOUG: How do people apply for this – I mean, what are the criteria for a start?
EMILY: You can either get referred through another service – like, the young person may be in a refuge or something. So they can be referred by their worker, there. Or they can also self-refer – like, drop into our office or give us a ‘phone call.
DOUG: Yeah. You’re also on the Internet, as well - - -
EMILY: Yeah.
DOUG: - - - that’s: fan.org.au.
EMILY: That’s right and they can send us an email if they want to.
DOUG: Which is: fan@fan.org.au. That’s not hard to remember; so, how many people are you helping at the moment?
EMILY: M’mm, because we’ve got a few different services, in the transitional houses we can house – I think its five or six young people at the one time, in the two properties.
DOUG: Right.
EMILY: But then, we also offer if there’s no vacancy in the houses we can offer outreach support for the young person and we also have the HEF funding. That’s one-off funding if they’re in a crisis or they’re having problems with their private rental and they have rental arrears. It varies. We’ve also a support group – like, a weekly support group. We see some young people in there, too. It really varies.
DOUG: When you say “young people” what age range are we talking about here?
EMILY: 15 to 25.
DOUG: Right and that’s your target range of people you take care of?
EMILY: Yes, yeah.
DOUG: Well, that’s great – and what other services do you have because I know quite often, when people get into these kinds of situations it’s not just that they need somewhere to live. They need to be connected with other organisations to help them out as well so, presumably you can point them in the right direction with that, too?
EMILY: Yeah, definitely. We believe in providing – like, a holistic approach. We don’t have just – like, a case manager - - -
DOUG: M’mm, m’mm.
EMILY: - - - but we can also – like, refer them to other services. For instance, mental health services or drug and alcohol services. We try and address the underlying issues as well.
DOUG: Do you find there’s a great demand for these services, more than you can provide for?
EMILY: Definitely. We have a waiting list to get into our transitional properties - - -
DOUG: M’mm, m’mm?
EMILY: - - - so there is much more of a need than we can provide.
DOUG: I’ve been trying to find any kind of stats, anyway, that would show me what percentage of homeless young people are same-sex attracted, transgender or intersex. There’s a lot of anecdotal evidence but there’s nothing really solid there. But in the US for example, there are figures that would suggest almost half - - -
EMILY: Yes.
DOUG: - - - fall into that category?
EMILY: I don’t know the exact percentage. But the problem is, these young people – like, through prior research it’s shown that because of perceived homophobia in homelessness services there’s a bit of a barrier there. So, they’re not accessing these services therefore there’s no way of collecting the data, effectively.
DOUG: Yeah, there’s also the problem they might be quite justifiably afraid of these places they might get sent to.
EMILY: Yeah, exactly. I’ve recently had a referral from another service down in Frankston for two young women who had been in rooming houses and refuges and had left a few of them due to homophobia and violence towards them. They just weren’t safe.
DOUG: Yeah, that’s very tragic. They go looking for help and it only makes things worse.
EMILY: It is, yeah.
DOUG: How is this service funded, do you take donations, do you get grants – how does it work?
EMILY: M’mm, all of the above [laughs]
[laughs]
EMILY: Our Allsorts properties are helped – funded, through the ALSO Foundation. In partnership with them and then we run, through local community grants, government grants, donations – m’mm, sponsors and membership as well.
DOUG: Right – so, if people want to donate to help support what you’re doing they can do that via your website, yeah?
EMILY: Yeah.
DOUG: Okay - - -
EMILY: They can just – m’mm, give us a ‘phone call.
DOUG: - - - right.
EMILY: Yeah.
DOUG: Thanks for that, Emily.
EMILY: No worries.
DOUG: Keep up the good work and I wish there were more of you.
[laughs]
EMILY: Me too.
DOUG: I was going to say, I bet you do too, sometimes?
EMILY: Yeah [laughs]
DOUG: All right, thank you very much - - -
EMILY: Thank you very much, Doug.
DOUG: - - - that’s Emily Todorov there from Family Access Network. Doing really good work there for same-sex attracted young people, transgender and intersex who are in housing crisis. Just to recap, the website is: www.fan.org.au. The email is: fan@fan.org.au.
