LGBTQ+ youth comprise 40% of the houseless population, and nearly 90% of them in Philadelphia are people of color. Brendan Taliaferro, a comparative literature major at the School of Arts and Sciences, discovered the critical need to provide safe, stable housing for these LGBTQ+ youth during his grant-funded summer internship research, which eventually grew into Homeward Initiative, one of three winners for Penn’s 2019 President’s Engagement Prize.
Homeward Initiative created the Host Homes program which works to place houseless queer youth from the ages of 18-25 into short-term housing solutions for 1-6 months. Homeward Initiative transitioned stewardship of the program to its community partner Valley Youth House in 2020.
“What we want is to foster meaningful relationships, so that even after the young people leave they will have a stable adult in their lives who cares about them,” says Taliaferro. “Many have never had that before.”