Many organizations that support LGBTQIA+ people (an acronym that includes lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and asexual people) experiencing homelessness “do not have specific services” and “furthermore, they are not trained or aware of features” of this community, the organization notes.
“The teams are not prepared, there is no adequate training (…) to greet, to respect pronouns, to understand the characteristics of these people who usually come with a backpack loaded with many things,” President Luse said. from Opus Diversidades director Helder Bertolo on the occasion of the meeting on “Responding to homelessness and homelessness among LGBTQ+ youth”, which took place in Lisbon on Tuesday.
The problem, he emphasizes, is not a specific response for this population, as is the case with Portugal’s Emergency Temporary Shelter for LGBTQ+ Homeless People run by Opus Diversidades, but the lack of preparation of end-to-end responses.
Homeless LGBTQ+ people who have already been in municipal or welfare centers have not had “any good results” and “often return to the streets,” Helder Bertolo emphasizes.
“The homophobia, and especially the transphobia, in these spaces is incredible,” he condemns.
Housing isolation and homelessness of LGBTQIA+ people continues to be ignored in current housing policy, and, in addition to the “lack of services” available to this population, there is also a lack of “adequate” training in team methods, which therefore also fail to deliver “pedagogy with welcomed by other people” who “usually” engage in “xenophobic, racist, misogynistic, sexist, homophobic or transphobic” discourse.
This situation leads to re-victimization of victims of aggression and discrimination, he emphasizes.
While agreeing on the importance of adopting specialized measures for this population, the President of the Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality (CIG), Sandra Ribeiro, agrees that there is a need to educate and empower public administration.
“We have never had so many attacks on public policy on this issue as we have now,” he warned at the opening of Tuesday’s meeting.
“We don’t know how many LGBT people are homeless, but we infer that there must be a lot,” he estimates, arguing that disaggregating data in the next census “is fundamental.”
“If we don’t measure reality, we won’t be able to act,” he explained.
Helder Bertolo confirms that “data on Portugal is sparse,” but what exists is “highly replicable” and estimates “between 20 and 40 percent of LGBT people among homeless people.”
Of these, “a high percentage, almost 70%,” believe they are homeless “because they are LGBT,” either because they came out and were kicked out, were unable to maintain a family environment, or because they lost their job. .
“More data is really needed,” without which it is impossible to “intervene” or “develop social and public policy.”
The results, presented on Tuesday as part of the European QueerNest project, show that the vulnerability of LGBTQIA+ young people has “increased”, emphasizes Helder Bertolo.
“The pandemic was terrible” and “many people” were left without work and without housing, the activist recalls, saying that all six LGBTQIA+ people currently staying in the only specialized shelter in Portugal, run by Opus Diversidades, have jobs, but “none.” You have the financial independence to pay for a house.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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