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Loading ...‘These kids are invisible’: An LGBT youth shelter in words and pictures
In the bedlam, Sylvia’s also manages to offer a small array of weekly evening groups for the kids, ranging from trans empowerment to creative writing to ballet.
Kate Barnhart, director of Sylvia’s Place
As Kate and I talk, chaos whirls around us. It’s a chaos peppered with the laughter and shockingly upbeat sprit of street-wise youth, but it’s frenetic up in here. But Kate is completely calm, deftly dealing with each and every new surprise wave that smacks the deck.
How many beds do you have?
We started with six in the beginning, and then we went up to 10, and then we went up to 12. Now we are officially at 20, but I believe we’re actually housing more like 25 kids. We try very hard not to turn anyone away, because we know literally being turned away from here often means a night on the street or the subway.
Kate’s voice suddenly raises several decibels. “People, keep your voices down, we’ve got a [writing] group going on,” she says. “Devon, that includes you – whoops, that’s Peaches. Peaches!”
How do you prioritize when kids come in? Does it just depend on whether there’s an open bed?
Well, there’s no such thing as an open bed here. We just take people until we really can’t fit anymore.
So when you say you have 20 beds and you try to take 25 people, where do you put the others?
Literally every inch of the floor gets covered, and the countertops. We always put all the garbage cans in the vestibule to make more space, and then other pieces of furniture on an as-needed basis go into the hallways and stuff.
So cushions go on the floor and stuff like that.
It’s all sleeping bags. It’s basically like a big gay slumber party, kind of mixed with a psychiatric emergency room.
What’s changed here since Queer Streets was filmed?
Well, we’ve opened and closed three other programs in the meantime.
We did a six-bed shelter in the East Village for a couple of years, until the Methodists kicked us out because they want to sell their building. We were on St. Marks in the Church of All Nations.
They have an apartment in there on the fourth floor, and they let us use it for six of our kids.
And then we did a women’s shelter at an Episcopalian Church up in Harlem until we had some flooding issues and that space became unusable.
And then we also opened a 5000-square-foot drop-in center in Harlem, the Marsha P. Johnson Center, which we just closed because we got screwed by the real estate market there. We were paying rent there, and it got unmanageable.
Are you always looking for more space then?
At this point we kind of have given up, because we just don’t have the funding. I mean, if someone has a free space like a another church, we would do it. But we can’t pay for space.
Is your funding stable right now?
No. Funding is horrible right now. We’ve had to make cuts in places where there were absolutely no cuts to make.
NEXT PAGE: Who gives – and who doesn’t.
i would like to take in the kids who r homeless because they r gay. i am gay but when i told my parents they accepted me and they told me they will always love me no matter wat i am. i feel sorry for these kids and it makes me want to cry!!!!
I appreciate your comments on not wanting to be involved with religous groups. I was raised in a fundamental type church that seperated me from my family for decades. I know the damage they can do to the average LGBT child (person) however please understand that according to this hart breaking article it is MCC Metropolitan Community Church
founded by the GAY REV Troy Perry. I have met him on a number of occations, and use to attend his first church in L.A
when I lived in California.
This is not your run of the mill evangelical type church. This was the first church that was founded for gays primarily. I remember how nice it was to be able to go some where and be a part of something that was not a bar or park or a bath to meet other gay folks. The message was and still is very positive and very embelishing to the gay community and their needs.
This is the last place that would do anything to harm the community.
My point is if you can donate to this so needed cause, please do so and know that any item or money you donate will make life a little bit more tolarable in a world that is still so crule in many ways.
In this case I deeply hope you reconsider.
You besurprised what org. support & don’t support, in some way gay org.As Salvation army doesn’t.I sure most don’t know this.Is as some who work there.But some still help reguardless of orders of the ignoranting laws.
Hubs has like 50 pairs of size 13 mens shoes, so some of those are going. Some other stuff, if I can find anything useful in the garage.
The ONLY reason I’m giving is because these kids are working and in school.
Gay, straight, or whatever…I have no deep abiding need to help people just sitting on their butts whining.
I agree with brad – no way i would ever consider giving money to an organization affiliated with “god” or “jesus” regardless of who they are trying to help. They do too much damage in the process by spreading their religious ideology to others like a disease. No money from me – I only donate to secular organizations.
I’m am almost 30 now, but I was homeless when I was 19 because of family issues. I cried so much reading this article. Luckily, do to my own strength and a local church that helped me, I have turned my life around. I finished community college, now have an AA degree in graphic design, my own apartment, and a wonderful boyfriend. I will be sending a donation to help out as much as I can for the next person who needs it.
Thank you for this story. It makes me want to go right there and help raise money. If I’d come out as trans as a youth, this could easily have been me.
Sonam Ben
We’re getting involved and we have no intent on pushing religion. This isn’t a faith issue, it is a humanity issue. We’re shipping out 500 toothbrushes today. More support will follow.
Archbishop Simpson
Benedictine Order of St. John the Beloved
Brad, and others in the queer community who share his view ~
Your willingness to help the kids at Homeless Youth Services and Sylvia’s Place is admirable. And, the aversion you express toward MCCNY and all things god/faith-related is an understandable one for anyone in the queer community who has faced the kind of persecution we have from religious folk.
However, the reality on the ground here in New York City, and frankly around the globe, is that mainstream (straight) society doesn’t care about these kids (as this article points out) and the non-faith-based queer community isn’t doing much of anything to address their considerable needs. The additional reality is that it’s the queer people who attend MCCNY (like Lucky, like me) and our allies – both queer and straight, people of faith and atheists, agnostics and secular humanists – that are making a difference in these kids’ lives through the valuable work that Homeless Youth Services does.
No one at MCCNY proselytizes these kids. Ever. Instead, the services there provide them food, clothing, shelter and refuge from a world that’s largely hostile to them.
Brad, you and others, might also be interested to know that one of the biggest barriers we face to fund-raising is the anti-faith sentiments of the queer community. I hope you won’t let that stand in the way of helping these kids.
Peace,
~ Jessie
The book “Shelter” can also be obtained by calling MCCNY at 212-629-7440… 100% of the proceeds go directly to MCCNY Homeless Youth Services to benefit our shelter program.
I would have to disagree with that comment Mike in Boston: If you want to help someone why do you need to acknowledge GOD? Im an atheist and found that the religious bible thumpers have ruined the whole bunch and left an awful nasty taste in mouth. Religion needs to get pushed back into the closet and not stop telling people how to live. That goes for Catholic/Muslim/Evangelical….etc
Great story!
These are our kids people and why every successful gay man or lesbian out there isn’t donating is beyond me.
Why are shelters like “Sylvia’s Place” struggling?
Even though I don’t have any money, I’m making a donation now. I hope everyone else who has read the article does the same.
Brad, although I’m an agnostic who has also been “burned” by religious folks, I’m not going to punish these kids in need.
MCC is one of the most liberal, gay-friendly churches out there. You should read a bit more about them.
My rule is, if the work they are doing is good, and no one else is doing it, I don’t care if it’s a religious group or not.
Not person of faith is an enemy of the queer community, Brad, and it doesn’t help our cause (GLBT equality), nor does it help these kids in need, for us to continue to treat all people of faith as the enemy.
So, go ahead and help these kids anyway, regardless of the group doing the helping. You can even include a note with your donation, saying it is coming from someone who is not a person of faith, but that you still understand the work they are doing is good.
Oh Dear!
I want to help these kids, I want to help the TG people find shoes to fit. I want to ship a printer all the way from Canada.
Here is the problem, when I google “MCCNY”, I see links that say “reconnect with God ” and “join a community of faith”. These links provide more than enough evidence to me that my donations are going the wrong way.
Please find a way to keep God and Faith out of it and the international queer community will give.
I have been hurt way too many times by those of faith to give to an organization who promotes it.
Good luck to you, I want to give but will not support any organization based in faith.
I just can’t give to LGBT’s with “Faith” on their side and I feel bad, I want to help those kids.
Be good, I will help you when religion is not part of the equation.
Wow, that was a powerful story…I had to hold back tears. The youth of today need that kind of love and support from all adults…I am just speechless to think of anything else to say.