Established 2005 Registered Charity No. 1110656

Scottish Charity Register No. SC043760

current issue

April – May 2025 : Second Chances READ ONLINE

RECENT TWEETS

Building welcoming spaces

April 01 2025

For LGBTIQA+ people facing homelessness, affirming community spaces are in short supply. A new project aims to create opportunities for inclusion, reports Siobhán McGuirk


FOTJA toolkit

Friends of the Joiners Arms has launched a toolkit through the JOIN project on how to make spaces more LGBTIQA+ friendly. You can download the toolkit on this page: www.friendsjoinersarms.com/join-toolkit


Friends of the Joiners Arms (FOTJA) is a campaign group aiming to open an LGBTIQA+ community-owned bar in east London. It’s not exactly the first place you’d expect to launch a project tackling social exclusions faced by people who are homeless. But the FOTJA ethos is one of radical inclusion – following in the footsteps of queer community activists throughout history.

Over the past year, FOTJA’s JOIN Project has collected the voices and experiences of over 100 LGBTIQA+ people who are homeless. Many are hidden homeless – moving between temporary accommodation, or relying on friends, lovers, public transport or informal work for a place to sleep. Many are people seeking asylum or with insecure immigration status, highlighting similar exclusions faced by different groups of LGBTIQA+ people.

The JOIN Project’s new Community Toolkit and podcast series brings these exclusions to light, focusing on the barriers to work, housing and community its contributors have faced. It also offers individuals and organisations concrete guidance, frameworks and strategies to help pull those barriers down. As the Toolkit introduction explains: “Expecting people to fit into structures that were never designed to meet their needs, experiences, or talents will not end exclusion. We must do more than open a few doors, for a few people, to access an exclusive club. This Toolkit can help us jam open the doors – and welcome everybody inside.” Topics covered include ‘safer spaces’ policies, accessible recruitment practices, trauma-informed safeguarding, creating sober spaces, and structures for flexible and rewarding volunteer programmes.

Homelessness is a painfully common reality for LGBTIQA+ people. According to Stonewall, one in five people from the community will experience homelessness at some point in their lives. A study by Micro Rainbow found that was true for twice as many LGBTIQA+ people seeking asylum or with refugee status – despite their being eligible for government housing support. The London Queer Housing Coalition estimates there to be 33,000 LGBTIQA+ homeless people living in the capital right now.

For queer and trans people of any age and any background, family rejection and abuse is a common root cause of homelessness – with fresh discrimination and harassment often encountered within state, local authority or charity services. Generation Rent research shows that LGBTIQA+ people find it far harder to secure private rental accommodation and are far more likely to live in unsafe, damp or mouldy homes. Homophobic and transphobic discrimination is made worse when combined with racism, ableism, or landlords’ refusal to accept housing benefits – all illegal under the Equalities Act 2010, but very hard to prove. Because of these exclusions, LGBTIQA+ homeless people often don’t know what benefits and supports they are entitled to, don’t feel that they deserve them, or don’t believe they’ll find support when exercising their rights.

Those rights are under threat. Hate crimes and verbal attacks on LGBTIQA+ people and migrants are on the rise – including from high profile commentators and politicians. In summer 2024, rioting mobs tried to burn down a hotel housing people seeking asylum – parroting myths about people seeking safety living in “luxury” at others’ expense. As JOIN contributors attest, the conditions of Home Office accommodation are bleak – “like a prison” in the words of Carolina. Others living in hotels reported homophobic officers, lack of privacy, inedible food and isolation. With no right to work and meagre funds, residents feel trapped, far from affirming community spaces.

Those spaces are also under threat: between 2006-2022, three in five London LGBTIQA+ venues closed. Most that remain are for-profit businesses catering to wealthier sections of the community – often inaccessible, unaffordable and/or unsafe for those who don’t fit that bill. When a queer or trans-led venue closes, it means one less place for people to feel safe – and one less route into affirming and rewarding employment, training or volunteering opportunities for people widely excluded elsewhere.

The JOIN Project Toolkit provides part of that education. It is available to download for free in English and Arabic, with a Spanish translation on the way. For any organisation seeking to build more inclusive, affirming structures – be they for people who are homeless, migrants, LGBTIQA+, or facing other exclusions – it is an invaluable resource.

< Finland's Housing First Mental health and homelessness >
April – May 2025 : Second Chances

CONTENTS

BACK ISSUES
BACK TO PAGE TOP