Drafter
Clerk 03/12/2015
Title
A MOTION expressing support for efforts to ensure parity of access to and success resulting from appropriate services for homeless youth and young adults of color and for homeless lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth and young adults.
Body
WHEREAS, tabulation efforts in recent years have indicated that, on any given night, between seven hundred seventy-five and one thousand youth and young adults between the ages of twelve and twenty-five are homeless or unstably housed in King County, and
WHEREAS, in response to this problem, King County partnered with local jurisdictions, service providers and funders to create the Homeless Youth and Young Adult Initiative as part of the Committee to End Homelessness to develop a comprehensive plan to prevent and end youth and young adult homelessness, and
WHEREAS, in August 2013, the Homeless Youth and Young Adult Initiative released a comprehensive plan to prevent and end youth and young adult homelessness in King County by 2020, and
WHEREAS, the comprehensive plan found that young people of color and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning ("LGBTQ") youth and young adults are overrepresented among homeless youth and young adults, and
WHEREAS, the comprehensive plan included an implementation strategy that identified priority investments to provide stable housing, permanent connections, emotional wellbeing, education and employment for homeless youth and young adults, and
WHEREAS, the fourth benchmark of this comprehensive plan included strategies to decrease the overrepresentation of people of color and LGBTQ people among homeless youth and young adults, and
WHEREAS, the Homeless Youth and Young Adult Initiative has been working to address this overrepresentation by tracking access to services and parity in program outcomes, and
WHEREAS, the initiative, in coordination with The Northwest Network of Bi, Trans, Lesbian & Gay Survivors of Abuse, has developed Project EQTY to improve the effectiveness of the community's services for LGBTQ youth and young adults, and
WHEREAS, Project EQTY is based on the premise that institutional and structural inequality is at the heart of homelessness and that centering services around the needs of marginalized youth will result in better services for all youth, and
WHEREAS, one of the recommendations developed as part of the 2015 review of the comprehensive plan is to develop an LGBTQ equity toolkit that is modelled on the city of Seattle racial equity toolkit to provide support for agencies that serve homeless youth and young adults and to support future decision-making through centering services around the experiences of the most marginalized young people, and
WHEREAS, the King County council has expressed its support for the comprehensive plan to prevent and end youth and young adult homelessness in King County by 2020 by appropriating funding for the implementation of the plan's strategies in the 2014 and 2015/2016 budgets;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT MOVED by the Council of King County:
A. The King County council supports efforts to ensure parity of access to and success resulting from appropriate services for homeless youth and young adults of color and for homeless lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning ("LGBTQ") youth and young adults.
B. The King County council supports the goals of Project EQTY and other efforts to ensure that all youth and young adults in need receive equal access to services, that services are centered in the experiences of marginalized youth and young adults and that services are designed to meet the needs and support the strengths of young people of color and LGBTQ youth and young adults.
C. The King County council supports approaches to serve homeless LGBTQ youth and young adults that: promote acceptance of their identities; support families, so that young people can stay in or return to their homes or, if not possible, support the
development of relationships in the community; and provide safe, affirming and competent care.