Nadia Swanson (Ali Forney Center): Youth homelessness crisis and funding gaps
Nadia Swanson reports 400 youth on AFC's wait list (up from 300 last year, under 100 when vouchers existed), 25 deaths since 2020, and a funding structure where DYCD pays $50K per bed against $80K real cost. She demands raising bed rates, restoring vouchers, and baselining $5M in speaker initiative funding.
Good afternoon.
My name is Nadia Swanson, pronouns they, them.
I'm the Director of Advocacy and Global Programs at the Aliforne Center.
Tonight, hundreds of LGBT 16 to 24-year-olds will sleep on the streets or in drop-in center chairs, waiting six months for a crisis bed after escaping unfathomable levels of abuse.
Without stability, they're at further risk for criminalization, sexual violence, decompensating mental and physical health, substance misuse, and profound developmental harm.
90% of AFC's youth are BIPOC and come from low-income households.
20% of the youth at Rikers are LGBT.
And since 2020, we have grieved 25 deaths.
And those are just the ones we know of.
LGBT unhoused youth die at more than double the rates of their peers.
These connections are not coincidental.
We serve over 2,000 youth a year.
We have 400 on a wait list for a bed, and last year that number was 300.
When youth had access to vouchers, it was under 100, and youth moved into stable housing with an increase by 350%.
Now there are none, and there's a bottleneck.
Statewide, RHY rose more than 70% in a single year.
The funding structure guarantees failure.
DYCD pays 50K per bed per year.
The real cost is 80K.
That gap has real human consequences.
The state and city exec cut RHY funding.
The mayor's housing plan did not include any housing youth can access through DYCD.
And HUD proposed gutting the equal access rule.
The shameful thing is this is fixable.
And it's not expensive.
We've been telling you what works.
Youth homelessness can be rare, brief, non-recurring, and safe.
We need the city to raise the RHY beds to 80K, fund LGBT youth mental health beds, increase crisis beds to eliminate wait lists.
We need more funding for case management and therapy, restore DYCD voucher access and expand supportive housing.
Baseline, the $5 million speaker initiative, fund $15 million for LGBT immigrant legal services.
Youth homelessness is a choice.
New York City cannot call itself safe for LGBT youth.
Well, 400 of them are decompensated on a wait list.
I'm tired of begging for the government to show it cares with action.
This should be top priority.
You can be the administration that eliminates wait lists.
Thank you.
And I have a lot more I can say, as you know.
So if you have questions, let me know.
Thank you, and please submit anything additional that is helpful to your testimony.