Laws and rights are one thing, but LGBTQ+ youth are still far more likely to face life on the streets. Uproute speaks to LGBTQ+ people who have turned their life around after homelessness, and questions why the system is still failing people like them.

When Mikey Garland from Liverpool was 19, they were homeless.

Today, they work for a theatre group recognised by the New York Times.

In 2010, Mikey rented a small room and worked as a cleaner, but faced homophobia at work:

“I got discriminated against on multiple occasions and in the end […] I left.”

They couldn’t find another job and became homeless.

Their young age meant the local council placed them in a hostel:

“I was put into a block of flats with lots and lots of different young people.

“Some people had suffered really terrible abuse, some people had drug issues, and it was a very unpleasant place to be. There was a lot of violence, the staff were undertrained, and it was very harsh.”

Mikey didn’t experience homophobia from the hostel staff, but from the tenants: 

“There was lots of homophobia from other tenants who were in the hostel […] and I was assaulted a few times for being gay.”

They also witnessed discrimination over class and accents:

“Because my accent was quite mild I got treated differently than those who had heavier accents and that contributed to them perceiving that I didn’t have any heavy drug issues or alcohol problems, so they moved me on to a nicer hostel on the basis of that which is quite awful.”

Mikey believes it was luck and finding the right people that got them back into stable housing:

“I could have been dragged back into the world of homelessness, it’s really just the luck of the draw and I’ve just drawn the right cards.”

But they said this came with a price:

“I managed to get out of it because I got more opportunities presented to me. I got terrible guilt about having gotten out of it when some people who had been in the hostel with me ended up on the streets.”

Mikey recalled one time this struck particularly hard:

“Not long ago I was walking through Liverpool city centre and I saw a bunch of homeless people queued up. A charity was giving out soup and in the line I saw one of the girls I had been in the hostel with. She was younger than me but, when I saw her in the line, she looked older than I am now and she’d lost most of her hair, and she just looked terrible and I felt so bad that she hadn’t gotten out of the situation and I had.

“Everybody should have been given the equal amount of opportunity to get out of that situation.”

No longer homeless, Mikey helped set up ArtsGroupie, which promotes access to the arts for those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

They said:

“I’ve always been interested in the arts. I was just lucky that I met the right person […] and together we built a really successful company. It’s a fast-growing grassroots arts organisation, it’s been featured in the New York Times and we’ve had lots and lots of success.”

Mikey’s experience fuels their work:

“I think I’m driven by that sense of guilt.

“So one thing is to give back to the community as much as possible. We are quite prolific with our community work. It’s not just for people to get a job in the arts, but the arts are so good for people’s welfare and sense of wellbeing.

“I feel like I’m doing something with purpose.”

Mikey wants to bring opportunities to disadvantaged backgrounds:

“There are still pockets of extreme poverty in Liverpool, so we go to those areas as much as possible to give people access to culture and to make sure that people can have access to happiness because everything costs so much now. 

“So it’s trying to overcome the many more barriers that people face.”

Mikey is just one example of LGBTQ+ youth becoming homeless. 

Today, it is still a problem despite changes such as the 2010 Equality Act which could have protected Mikey at work.

Over the past few years, Jade (not her real name) has gone from living on the streets to volunteering and helping homeless LGBTQ+ youth.

She endured many of the same problems Mikey faced over a decade ago.

Jade was made homelessness due to transphobia making her unsafe to stay where she was living:

“I trusted people with my address and it didn’t work out very well.

“It was just awful for me.”

Jade approached her local council for help, who offered safety measures she described as “useless”.

She said she had no choice but to surrender her flat.

Jade recalls the council then said: “It’s your own fault, you made yourself homeless”.

She relocated cities and faced fresh problems trying to find accommodation with a different council:

“They never did anything like risk assessments on areas. They just dumped you in any kind of temporary accommodation, whichever one was cheaper for them.”

Jade finally found a group called the Alphabet Collective who supported her back into stable housing.

Hannah Poklad, a youth worker and co-founder of the group, played a huge role in turning Jade’s life around. Hannah said:

“At the Alphabet Collective we deal with a plethora of challenges that people might be experiencing. If anything’s a case like Jade’s, where we need that specialist support, we’ll refer on and bring all the other services in.”

She said: “It’s about bringing people together. Forming a sense of community and belonging so people can meet like-minded people going through the same challenges.

Jade said going from living on the streets to housing is a huge challenge:

“They don’t ever talk about the changes and adaptations you need from living on the streets. You’ve gone from having that as a normality in your life to then now living in your own place and it being lonely and isolating.

“That’s why a lot of people with homelessness end up being back homeless again, because they can’t deal with the change.”

Jade now volunteers alongside the group with a service providing food, showers, and community to those in need, which she finds rewarding.

She believes these services are essential, as finding access to personal care facilities is particularly difficult for LGBTQ+ homeless people.

Jade said certain hostels won’t allow trans people to use shower facilities as they don’t know which gendered facility they should use.

She said: “Then you’re just screwed.”

Hannah believes being homeless is particularly challenging for LGBTQ+ people:

“[There are] so many things LGBTQ+ people are disproportionately more likely to experience: homelessness as well as poor mental health, food poverty and various challenges in life. 

“I think more training is required to understand more about intersectional communities and more compassion should be exercised as well.” 

Both of them gave one piece of advice to LGBTQ+ people facing homelessness.

Hannah said: “Try to link up with any services that you can.”

Jade said: “Always have an advocate. Don’t go in head first, don’t go in on your own.”

Both Mikey’s and Jade’s stories show the real world experience of youth LGBTQ+ homelessness.

Progress has been made in law, but it hasn’t stopped the disparity or the raw reality.

Hear from our expert:

Dr Carin Tunåker, has worked on the frontlines of homelessness services. Dr Tunåker is a lecturer of Law at the University of Kent and specialises in homelessness and inequalities. She was a lead editor and contributor to an edition of Housing Studies (2025) focused on LGBTQ+ homelessness

Dr Carin Tunåker said:

“It’s absolutely horrific to see what is happening to young people who are queer in today’s climate.

“We’re seeing more issues for young queer people, more homelessness and even more challenging situations for those who are experiencing it.”

Legal advancements such as the 2010 Equality Act suggest life should be getting easier for LGBTQ+ people, but Dr Tunåker argues there has been a ‘paradox of progress’ in which the legal advancements in LGBTQ+ rights are not being reflected in people’s lived realities.

She said: “People think it’s not a problem to be queer anymore.

“There are many, many challenges for the queer community still and these are being obscured by this perception that everything’s now fine and equal.”

Dr Tunåker’s research gave some examples of causes of LGBTQ+ homelessness: families not being accepting, the fear of a hostile environment, and poor mental health. 

A 2018 Stonewall survey found 52% of LGBTQ+ people having experienced depression.

When asked what needed to change, Dr Tunåker said: 

“There are quite a lot of other things that could be done: better protections through homelessness legislation, ensuring that LGBTQ plus people have priority needs as a basis, better understanding of domestic abuse in queer relationships and in queer families.”