June is international Pride month, but organisations in New Zealand are continuing the fight to address the darker side of life faced by the rainbow community.
Research has found the rainbow community consistently faces discrimination and violence within housing and homelessness services. Photo: RNZ / Luke McPake
Research shows that rainbow communities are more likely to experience homelessness than other groups, and a collaborative project is making a first attempt to minimise this.
Making Space is bringing together sector leaders and those with lived experience to help housing services better cater to rainbow-identifying people, starting in Tāmaki Makaurau, with the intention to spread wider.
Nyx Simons has worked to battle homelessness in LGBTQI+ and takatāpui communities for 10 years, but leading the Making Space project has reminded them how severe the issue is.
"It's been quite difficult doing this project, 'cause you know I come from lived experience, I'm a rainbow person myself, it's been really hard to hear the horrible stories of things that are happening."
The themes recently established in their insight report are sobering: it was found that the rainbow community consistently faces discrimination and violence within housing and homelessness services, and only reach out for support as a last resort.
"We've got young people who are living in motels, in emergency housing, that are being abused, subject to violence and discrimination, scared to leave their rooms, and don't have anywhere else to go."
Tamara Anderson works alongside many of these people as a social work practice manager, and says the most common path to homelessness is rejection of their identities from families.
"Some families, they won't accept their child being LGBTQI."
But while family homes can become unsafe, it seems the odds are stacked against LGBTQI+ people in the rental market too.
"They're sort of judged on their outside appearance, and also their sexuality," she said.
"The business model seems to view us as a risk."
Distrust of housing services
Brodie Fraser, an Otago University researcher of homelessness in the rainbow community, says mistreatment from from institutions across the board causes distrust of housing services.
"Rainbow communities often have quite a low level of trust in institutions that are mean to support us, so for example if you go to a doctor and have a really really bad time, you might be a little bit distrustful of other institutions."
While New Zealand doesn't have national statistics on LGBTQI+ homelessness, Fraser's research confirms the group is at higher risk because of prejudice and systemic injustice.
Nyx said the scale of the homelessness problem for the community can at times be overwhelming, but was determined to think ahead.
"Rainbow issues have been around for a really long time and I feel like we've kind of arrived in a space where we don't have to fight for that voice to be heard. But we do need to be starting to look towards, what are the solutions."
