A DC nonprofit plans to provide additional transitional housing for LGBTQ youth

DC nonprofit Supporting and Mentoring Youth Advocates and Leaders, or SMYAL, recently announced that it is opening an extended transitional housing (ETH) program, its third facility for LGBTQ-identifying young people experiencing homelessness.

The program will serve young people ages 19-24 for up to six years, offering stable housing and services ranging from case management to mental healthcare to employment and life skills training, all in a trauma-informed, identity-affirming environment.

SMYAL already has two transitional facilities that house 26 young people, providing care for up to two years. SMYAL’s Director of Clinical Services, Jorge Membreño, said the new extended program is meant to serve those who need longer-term care, often because of past trauma.

“For most who come into our programs, they can build a foundation in two years,” Membreño said. “For others, it takes a lot more of a fight to get them to get there … they just need an opportunity to grow with a longer timespan.”

According to a DC request for proposals, the target population is LGBTQ youth who are “economically or emotionally detached from their families and lack an adequate or fixed residence.”

Studies have found that both nationally and locally, LGBTQ youth face homelessness at disproportionate rates, often because of family rejection due to their identity. A 2015 survey found that more than 40% of young people experiencing homelessness in DC identified as LGBTQ.

Membreño said for many LGBTQ youth, oppression because of their identity is just one layer on top of layers of trauma, including trauma from homelessness itself, that can take years to heal. The goal of the ETH program is not only to provide services in a trauma-responsive way, but to offer two things many of SMYAL’s clients have been lacking: stability, and a space in which their identities are not only accepted but celebrated.

Up to 12 people will be able to live in SMYAL’s new apartment-style housing in southeast DC, after being placed through the District’s youth Coordinated Assessment Housing Placement system. The six units will each have two private bedrooms and a shared kitchen, living room, and bathroom. Residents will also be able to access a computer lab.

Extended transitional housing isn’t a solution recommended for every population — for many adults, the goal is getting someone into a permanent home as quickly as possible. But DC’s 2017 report on its strategic plan to end homelessness wrote that some young people have “have significant need to develop social, educational, and employment skills that go beyond exit to permanent housing.”

Though the pandemic has changed the needs of many young people SMYAL serves, Membreño said it hasn’t limited the services the organization offers or significantly impacted the model for the new program.

“For us, it’s part of the work we do: rain or shine, snow or sleet, we’re going to be there and we need to be there,” Membreño said. “To grow in our program, [clients] need consistency. That’s how the chains of trauma are broken.”