User:Abains1721/Homelessness among LGBT youth in the United States/Bibliography

Drafting
Legend: My changes to the article will be in bold. Sentences I pull from the original article will be in normal text. No planned changes to heading or subheadings, but I will be reordering the current information. Original citation numbers in parentheses, with new citations referenced according to bibliography.

The government spends $4.2 billion annually on homeless assistance programs, but less than 5% of this funding ($195 million) is allocated for homeless children and youth, and a fraction of that in turn for unaccompanied homeless youth.(Citation 35 / ) Furthermore, the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness has acknowledged that LGBT youth are at a 120% greater risk of homelessness than heterosexual youth, and that they are also more vulnerable to negative health conditions, exploitation, and human trafficking. There are currently no federal programs or policies designed to specifically meet the needs of or protect LGBT homeless youth in the United States. (Citation 36).

'''There are concerns about discrimination against directing funding toward homeless LGBT youth. Federal funds are allocated to organizations that provide shelter and services to homeless youth in the United States through two major programs: The Runaway and Homeless Youth Act (RHYA), first implemented in 1974 as the Runaway Youth Act and reauthorized multiple times since then''', and the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. (citation 34) According to the Center for American Progress, there are no mandates that the federal funds from these programs be provided to shelters that do not discriminate against LGBT youth'''. This means that some funding is given to organizations with explicitly anti-gay or anti-transgender policies. This can lead to denial of care, youth being afraid to access services, or youth being sent''' to sexual orientation conversion therapy. (citation 33)

'''Experts argue that policy makers are complacent regarding the specific problem of homeless LGBT youth. Runaway Youth Act programs are severely underfunded and are only able to provide services to a small portion of youth experiencing homelessness; and yet the Office of Management and Budget's 2006 rates these programs as 'effective', which is the highest rating possible.  Federal responses remain focused on addressing gaps in research and data, such as questions determining factors of entry and exit to homelessness, impacts of homelessness on life outcomes, and effective ways to specify services and housing for homeless youth. As there are a disproportionate number of LGBT homeless youth, there needs to be an equivalent focus from researchers on addressing questions and issues specific to LGBT homeless youth.  Chaplin Hall and the Voices of Youth Count conducted relevant research in 2018 and formulated recommendations and solutions to gaps in research for policymakers to utilize.'''

Updating Federal Policy Section
Hello, I am a student from UC Berkeley and I would like to propose some changes to the federal policy subsection of the response section of this article. I will update the section to include more recent information regarding the United States' federal policy regarding LGBT youth homelessness. Sources will include Focus on Unaccompanied Youth brief by the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness in 2018, and the On the Streets: The Federal Response to Gay and Transgender Homeless Youth by the Center for American Progress in 2010. I will organize the information so that it is in chronological order.