Happy Pride month! It’s fantastic seeing Pride flags all over Sonoma County this month at fire departments, schools, banks, storefronts and offices. We are thrilled at Generation Housing to celebrate and uplift LGBTQ+ voices, and proudly support LGBTQ rights, we also want to take a moment to recognize the long road to where we are today.
Pride wasn’t officially recognized in Sonoma County until 1992. And it was only last year — 2021 — that federal protection from housing discrimination was granted to LGBTQ people by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) under the Fair Housing Act. Numerous studies show significant bias still occurs for LGBTQ Americans seeking housing to buy or rent. One HUD study found that housing providers in multiple U.S. cities discriminated against gay men and transgender people by telling them about fewer available units than heterosexual men and cisgender individuals. This is why we need to continue to advance policy change, ensuring we have more legal protection for LGBTQ rights to housing.
Sonoma County has one of the highest per-capita populations of LGBTQ people and a progressive culture. And this still doesn’t prevent LGBTQ individuals from being affected by our housing challenges. According to the 2021 Portrait of Sonoma report, LGBTQ residents “are disproportionately likely to experience homelessness” and 16 percent of unhoused residents identify as LGBTQ.
Preliminary data from our current research project studying the impacts on families when they spend too much of their income on housing, indicate that local LGBTQ respondents were more likely to report facing hunger and not getting healthcare due to finances. For physical healthcare this was statistically significant, with 46% of self-identified queer respondents saying lack of money prevented them from getting physical healthcare as opposed to 21% of the rest of the population (please note these are preliminary data and final results will be published this fall). When housing costs are too high, it doesn’t leave enough to pay for other expenses.
Something I can’t forget after reading the Portrait was our local youth homelessness rate. About 28 percent of youth experiencing homelessness in Sonoma County identify as LGBTQ. We can do better for our youth. Let’s increase the affordable housing supply in our area. Let’s come together with the goal of a brighter, more equitable future where everyone can afford a home.
Join us for an online Youth & Housing Town Hall on Tuesday, July 21 at 5:30 p.m. We would love to hear from the younger crowd about their hopes and concerns for the future of housing in our area. Spread the word to the students, children or grandchildren in your life! Please register for this (free) event at generationhousing.org/events. Hope to see you there. We can do this!
In partnership,
Jen Klose