Alex Guevara (Ali Forney Center): Youth homelessness experience
Alex Guevara, a queer and trans youth advocate, shares their experience of family rejection leading to RHY services, sleeping in drop-in center chairs, and being dead-named at Marsha's House. They credit city-funded new beds at AFC for reducing their wait time and call for vouchers and LGBTQ-affirming staff.
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Hi everyone, my name is Alex Guevara and I'm a youth advocate at the Ali Fornay Center.
I'm speaking as a queer and trans person who is living through what many LGBTQ plus young people have experienced.
For LGBTQ youth, homelessness is so much deeper than not having a place to sleep.
It's about rejection,
instability, and survival.
This is also the case for me as family rejection caused me to need HRHY services.
These experiences caused a lot of pain and I could not work on healing while waiting for a steady place to stay.
I arrived at AFC last summer at 21 years old.
I stayed overnight at the drop-in center and on the streets for three weeks.
The drop-in center was not comfortable since they are no longer allowed to have beds, so I had to sleep in chairs or on top of a table.
My case manager then referred me to Marsha's house.
A DHS shelter, and I stayed there for two weeks.
Marsha's felt more like a prison.
We were yelled at by staff while going about our daily activities, and we were dead named.
It was made clear that we were just another case to solve, but we're not just that.
We're people with trauma, but most importantly, with stories that deserve to be respected and heard.
If they hired LGBTQ staff, it would have been a much better environment.
Thanks to the city funding of 100 new beds for 21 to 24-year-olds, AFC was able to open up a new emergency housing site.
Without that site opening, I easily could have been on the wait list for up to six months instead of a month.
Today, I live in AFC's transitional housing program, and I'm looking into rapid rehousing or supportive housing as my next step.
But the options are extremely limited, and the supportive housing process will take at least another year.
If youth had access to vouchers, I could have easily moved out on my own sooner.
To end, I just want to say we as queer youth deserve a housing program that feels like home, where we can find community.
and where we can feel comfortable, we'll welcome you staff and peers.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you for your testimony.