The shelter is a reception structure for young LGBTQIA + which was born in 2018 and has faced, since its creation, an exponential demand. In 2022, 32 young people were accommodated there and 143 were helped in their search for accommodation. “For each request accepted, the shelter must refuse a dozen”deplores the director of the association Marc Bouteiller.
Among the young people currently staying at the reception center is David, 28, kicked out by his mother. “My girlfriend is a trans woman. We lived our little life quietly and one day, I posted a picture of the two of us on Instagram. My brother saw her and he started insulting me and threatening me with death and my mother decided to stop hosting me. So my girlfriend told me to come here”, he explains. After an initial interview with the shelter team, David was granted a room that he shares with another person. “Now my priority is to find accommodation, sort out my administrative situation and find a job”he says.
Although Belgium is a model for its legislation in favor of LGBTQIA+ people, homophobia is far from non-existent in our country. “There are still many assaults and rapes committed in Belgium and linked to homophobia; This is not a figment of the imagination. Even if Belgium is at the forefront for its legislative measures, there is still a big prevention work to be done. There are still young people who are put on the streets because of their sexual orientation. Recently, an eleven-year-old boy was put on the streets because he had come out. He is is then found in prison as a result of larceny”explains Marc Bouteiller.
“In the United States, 40% of homeless young people identify as LGBTQIA+. homelessness. For trans people, this proportion rises to one in three. In Belgium, there are few figures. Unia believes that the methods used to identify people living on the streets are intended to be the least intrusive possible compared to to privacy. This is a laudable concern but unfortunately, it makes the phenomenon more invisible and reinforces its perverse effects”, denounces the director of the association. Very often, discrimination against LGBTQIA+ people is associated with related fragilities such as a higher risk of suicide, a greater risk of developing mental and physical illnesses such as STIs.
“We also know that there are more sex workers among this population and more addiction problems as well. These are all consequences of the break between the young person and his family.”