TORONTO – Alex Abramovich has been fiercely advocating for the rights of youth in the LGBTQ2S community and has been pushing to see specialized housing programs brought to Toronto to help support homeless LGBTQ2S youth.
After nearly 10 years, Abramovich’s hard work paid off and Thursday he was on hand to announce the YMCA’s Sprott House, Toronto’s first LGBTQ2S youth transitional housing facility.
“I came from it from more of a personal experience,” said Abramovich, a transgender man who is now a researcher with the Centre of Addiction and Mental Health.
“I had a really challenging coming out experience and it was really that experience that led me to my research.”
On Feb. 1, 25 spaces will be made available to homeless youth from the LGBTQ2S community.
“We’ve been dealing with unsafe conditions for a long time. This is critical in meeting the needs of this population of youth,” Abramovich said.
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Twenty to 40 per cent of youth who are homeless identify as LGBTQ2S and many homeless youth say do not feel safe in the shelter system, Abramovich said.
In early 2015, Toronto city council approved funding for two LGBTBQ2S shelter programs.
Toronto Mayor John Tory said Thursday the services are necessary in order to provide proper care and support to LGBTQ2S youth and that getting support from an existing shelter system is “not an adequate answer.”
Tory added the community has been extremely supportive of the renewed facility.
“They came forward to say they wanted to help make this happen,” he said.
“They wanted to make friends with people here. They wanted to be partners and real neighbours.”
Abramovich added although this is a step in the right direction, there is still plenty of work to be done around services for the LGBTQ2S community.
“We need to make sure that we don’t have just specialized housing programs but that we also hold the whole system accountable,” he said.
“We have to make sure that all standards and policies in place respect the needs and address the needs of LGBTQ2S youth.”
The Sprott House will be one of two facilities in the city to offer transitional housing for LGBTQ2S youth.
Egale Canada Human Rights Trust will open another youth LGBTQ2S transitional house in 2016 which will accommodate 30 LGBTQ2S youth.
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