Legislation now before members of the New York City council would require an annual tally of LGBTQ+ foster youth and the number of times they were moved between homes. The effort is part of city leaders’ response to mounting concerns about discrimination and poor treatment.
At a Tuesday council hearing focused on better addressing these young people’s needs, advocates for homeless youth pressured city leaders to improve on current measures. They called for stricter protections from biased caregivers, improved data collection and an update on policies that are now a dozen years old.
Erin Beth Harrist, director of the Legal Aid Society’s LGBTQ+ unit, said the young people her office represents are more likely than their peers to run away and end up in shelters — or suffer fates far worse. Often they are fleeing foster care placements where they do not feel safe, she said.
“What does it say about the system that LGBTQ+ youth feel safer being homeless or being marginally housed than they do in their placements?” Harrist said.
Heads of the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) and the Department of Youth and Community Development fielded such questions at the hearing — and took some heat for failing to properly serve the estimated one-third of older foster youth who identify as LGBTQ+.
At a time when much of the country is rolling back protections for these youth, ACS Commissioner Jess Dannhauser described the protection his agency has provided as unique and far-reaching, with additional improvements in the works.
“It is of the utmost importance to ACS that all youth and families who come into contact with ACS are treated in an affirming manner,” Dannhauser told members of the city council. “LGBTQAI+ affirming youth are also entitled to health care, including hormone replacement therapy and gender-affirming surgeries, which ACS will pay for if Medicaid will not.”
He said that a new LGBTQ+ policy for foster youth will be released in the coming year, and that the agency is open to conducting annual surveys.
Dannhauser also said the city is updating its training for staff, parents and clinicians.
Current city policy requires access to gender-appropriate bathrooms and hygiene products, Dannhauser added. He also pointed to five group homes operated by the nonprofit SCO Family of Services that are dedicated to serving LGBTQ+ foster youth.
City council members have proposed improvements as well.
Legislation introduced in February and sponsored by councilmember Chi Ossé would require the city’s child welfare agency to report annually on the number and placement of LGBTQ+ foster youth who are 13 and older, as well as their racial identities. The bill also would require reporting on how many youth have been placed in permanent homes.
A second bill sponsored by councilmember Kevin Riley would require a quarterly audit that would be made publicly available, detailing placement changes and providing details such as the time elapsed between moves and whether an attorney for the youth was informed.
“Increasing transparency in the foster care placement process can help foster families to feel more informed and involved, reducing the likelihood of placement disruptions and increasing stability that is crucial for child development,” Riley said Tuesday.
Youth advocates acknowledged the city’s efforts, but described ongoing shortcomings in proper care.
An April white paper produced for the city by the nonprofit Ali Forney Center found “an increase in blatant homophobic and transphobic remarks and treatment” by staff who provide services to foster youth and triage reports to the child maltreatment hotline.
In 2021, a survey commissioned by the city revealed that roughly 35% of youth in the foster care system ages 13 to 20 years old identified as LGBTQ+ — a percentage higher than the general population due in part to unwelcoming families of origin. The survey found this population was most likely to be youth of color, have greater struggles with depression, and to experience confrontations with the police.
In testimony Tuesday, complaints included employees who “deadnamed” foster youth — using birth names instead of the names they now use — and transgender youth being housed in facilities inconsistent with their gender identity. Others said medical care for transitioning foster youth was not being properly provided.
“Just a couple months ago, we heard about a young person who was told their transition-related care was cosmetic and therefore that it wasn’t something that was going to be provided by the agency, and that’s wrong as a matter of policy,” Harrist said. “That’s wrong as a matter of law.”
“What does it say about the system that LGBTQ+ youth feel safer being homeless or being marginally housed than they do in their placements?”
— Erin Beth Harrist, Legal Aid Society
Commissioner Dannhauser acknowledged that teens can face bias when placed with relatives who have not been trained as licensed foster parents and do not abide by the city’s affirming policies. He also suggested that instances of deadnaming and mis-gendering can result from misunderstandings about a young person’s legal name. The city agency has also reached out to state officials to ensure that hotline workers follow affirming protocols, Dannhauser said.
Steven Gordon, director of LGBTQ+ Equity Strategies with the Administration for Children’s Services responded to concerns about homophobic and transphobic foster parents. He clarified that nonprofit agency staff working for the city are trained to “look for red flags for foster parents that might be unaffirming,” and to alert leadership to pull their license in those cases. He mentioned five cases last year in which agency staff followed up on reports of discrimination against LGBTQ+ foster youth, though none resulted in removals.
In addition, Gordon said, caregivers learn during their training sessions to speak to foster children and older youth about their sexual orientation, body parts and gender pronouns in age-appropriate ways.
Councilmember Althea Stevens, leader of the city’s Committee on Children and Youth Services, brought up ongoing concerns. She described meeting LGBTQ+ youth in homeless and drop-in shelters who were no longer in the foster care system because “they’re not getting affirmations.”
“Having policies on paper are not enough,” Stevens said. “We should make special efforts to make sure that we’re recruiting in all communities.”
Sept. 26 correction: This story has been updated to note that there were no removals in the five cases that ACS intervened in last year.
