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When Liamm arrived in Miami from Ukraine last year at the age of 20, he had no money and nowhere to live. He had fled war, traveling through Germany and New York before reaching South Florida. Homeless and without a support network, he turned to ChatGPT for phone numbers to shelters that accepted people experiencing homelessness.
But Liamm had another concern.
As a gay man, he feared ending up in a shelter where he might face discrimination or mistreatment because of his sexual orientation.
“There is a learned distrust of the system, and it is fully justified given the historical dangers and violence people have experienced,” said Anjuli Castaño, manager of Miami Homes For All, a nonprofit organization that promotes affordable housing and supports people experiencing homelessness in Miami-Dade County. “We have had cases of young people being misgendered in shelters.”
Liamm called several shelters before finally reaching LJ Woolston, a social worker and coordinator for SHIFT 4 Youth, a program that serves young people experiencing or at risk of homelessness, with a particular focus on LGBTQ youth.
From there, support came gradually. The program helped him secure housing and connect with services that allowed him to begin rebuilding his life. Woolston said the long-term goal is to help young people develop the stability and life skills needed to live independently. For Liamm, that support meant moving beyond day-to-day survival and beginning to plan for the future.
Liamm’s story reflects a broader reality affecting thousands of LGBTQ young people across the United States. While many parents embrace and support their LGBTQ children, others do not. During the Miami Beach Pride Parade in May, volunteers with Free Mom Hugs offered hugs and support to young people who had been rejected by their families or lacked a supportive family network.
Often, those same young people are the ones most in need of stable housing.
“Family rejection is the root cause of all of this,” Woolston said.
Sexual minority youth are approximately three times more likely to experience homelessness than their heterosexual peers, with an estimated 12% experiencing housing instability, according to research from Vanderbilt University published in Pediatrics.
LGBTQ youth also face rates of sexual exploitation and trafficking that are roughly twice as high as those of their non-LGBTQ peers, according to a review of academic studies cited by Psychology Today. They are “disproportionately affected,” Castaño said. Abuse, neglect, family rejection and a lack of community support can push many into homelessness, creating a cycle that is difficult to escape.
According to Woolston, Miami-Dade historically has had few specialized programs serving homeless LGBTQ youth. In April 2025, SHIFT 4 Youth launched to serve young adults ages 18 to 24, including providing direct housing assistance to people like Liamm.
The future of those services remains uncertain.
SHIFT 4 Youth receives funding through the Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, making it dependent on congressional appropriations. Although HUD continues to support programs serving homeless youth, several federal homelessness grant programs have become entangled in legal disputes over agency requirements introduced in 2025.
Liamm credits the support he received with helping him achieve stability.
“It may have saved my life,” he said. “Because people in situations like that, so many people die by suicide in the United States.”
