Study: Poverty Raises Suicide Risks for LGBTQ+ Youth

Homelessness, hunger and other issues tied to poverty are fueling a dangerously entrenched mental health crisis among LGBTQ+ teens and young adults in the U.S., including increased anxiety and suicide attempts within the demographic. And roughly one out of every 10 young gay or queer people experiencing homelessness is Black.

That’s the conclusion of a new report from The Trevor Project released Wednesday that examined personal economic stability and mental health among LGBTQ+ adolescents and young adults. 

“What stood out is that with those who had a history of houselessness their rates of attempting suicide were just were so much higher,” Dr. Derrick Matthews, the Trevor Project’s director of research science, told Word In Black. “That just shows that there’s really something kind of important happening here around economic security, or lack thereof: folks’ ability to have good mental health and our ability to prevent suicide.”

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Yet even as The Trevor Project survey establishes links between gay youth, poverty and suicidal ideation, the federal government is set to end funding to a crisis hotline for LGBTQ+ young people — a decision experts say will put lives at risk. 

When Basic Needs Go Unmet

“I worry deeply that we will see more LGBTQ young people reach a crisis state and not have anyone there to help them through that,” says Janson Wu, director of advocacy and government affairs at The Trevor Project, a nonprofit whose mission is to end suicide among LGBTQ+ young people.

Even before factoring in poverty-related issues, data shows the mental health of gay and lesbian adolescents and young adults isn’t in a good place. A joint survey by the University of Connecticut and the nonprofit Human Rights Campaign found that more than half of the roughly 13,000 LGBTQ young people ages 13 to 18 who responded showed clinical signs of depression. 

According to the Trevor Project, food insecurity, homelessness, and being financially unable to meet one’s basic needs — including clothing, water, security and human interaction — were all independently associated with LGBTQ+ young people having an increased likelihood of anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, and suicide attempts. 

Hunger, for example, was associated with almost a 70% increase in rates of  depression and a 68% higher likelihood of facing anxiety.

Of all youths who have experienced homelessness, 1 in 4 either considered or attempted suicide, compared with 9% of those whose housing is secure. Moreover, teens and young adults who weren’t able to meet their basic needs — finding food or shelter — had 52% higher odds of attempting suicide. 

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The situation isn’t much better for transgender, non-binary young people: they had greater odds of experiencing food insecurity (77%) and periods of homelessness. Also, 67% showed greater odds of being unable to meet their basic needs, compared to cisgender LGB young people.

Roughly 7% of Black youth reported being homeless, and the same amount reported being unable to feed or house themselves. 

The geographic region with the worst outcomes was the South where all of the economic insecurity measures affected more than 30% of youth. 

Major systemic changes may be the answer, experts say, including cash assistance in the form of a guaranteed basic income. 

Several U.S. localities have run pilot programs that seek to balance racial and income inequality. The idea isn’t new;  In the 1960s, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. argued that guaranteed income  would ensure each American had enough money to meet basic needs each year.

Advocates believe increased funding for LGBTQ+-inclusive shelters, as well as making mental health services more accessible, also would help. But those are unlikely in the near future; in fact, Trevor Project reports  that the federal government wants to eliminate all funding for the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline’s LGBTQ+ Youth Specialized Services. 

If it happens, federal emergency crisis support to LGBTQ+ youth considering suicide would end on October 1.

Cutting a Lifeline

The Trevor Project is among the handful of organizations that make up the LGBTQ+ Youth Subnetwork; its hotline responds to about half of 988’s calls and texts from queer youth. This year, the subnetwork received an estimated $50 million in federal funding.

Jaymes Black, the organization’s CEO, says the Trump administration’s decision to stop funding the hotline shows the White House doesn’t understand that suicide prevention is about risk, not identity.

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“Ending the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline’s LGBTQ+ youth specialized services will not just strip away access from millions of LGBTQ+ kids and teens,” Black says.  “It will put their lives at risk. To end suicide, “we need more resources — not fewer,” he says. “We urge the Administration to maintain its long-standing commitment to ending suicide among high-risk populations, especially our nation’s young people. We urge Congress to defend its establishment of this data-based, bipartisan program to allow its life-saving services to continue for generations to come.” 

Preventing youth suicide, Black says, should not be a partisan issue. 

“We do not have to agree on every policy issue to agree,” he says, “that every young life is worth saving.”

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