Funding crisis forces KC’s only LGBTQ+ youth shelter to close as winter approaches

In early October, Kansas City lost its only emergency overnight shelter for LGBTQ+ youth due to a lack of funding, after having never received promised federal money. As winter approaches, leaders of Pride Haven have been left to scramble for grant money in hopes of reopening.

Since 2020, Pride Haven at 3109 Campbell Street had been a place where queer homeless youths between ages 18 and 24 could go to sleep, eat and find housing resources. In the 2022 fiscal year, Pride Haven provided nearly 150 LGBTQ+ homeless youth with housing, according to their 2022 impact report.

“This back door right here truly is known in the community as a place where someone will be kind to me if I’m having a hard time,” said Murphy Maiden, a case manager at Pride Haven.

Since funding dried up, those still employed with the shelter have been hitting the pavement several times a week, going to where the homeless youth are and making sure they still have resources.

“Transition-aged youth is the technical term,” said Pride Haven’s CEO Patrick McLaughlin. “While they’re adults by, voting and serving in the military standards, there’s still a level of development and growth that is happening during those years that makes them extra vulnerable.”

Several other nonprofits in the metro only take in queer youth under 18 and over the age of 24, according to McLaughlin, so Pride Haven provided a way to fill in a niche gap in care for that age group. At full capacity, Pride Haven could house 20 youth at a time. More were always welcome throughout the day to grab food, water and anything else they needed.

It was known as a place where someone would always answer the door with kindness — until now.

“It’s devastating,” said Cara Ramsey, Pride Haven program director, reflecting on their closure.

“I mean, we see these youth coming in our doors everyday for years that need this place to survive, so just thinking about where the youth are now who don’t have access to this safe place is terrifying. It’s not where we want to be. We wanna be able to open up the doors again and provide those overnight services,” Ramsey said.

How funding was lost

At its inception, Pride Haven was able to operate with the help of COVID relief fund money and a three year grant from the Hall Foundation. In 2022, U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, Missouri’s 5th Congressional district representative, was able to get $400,000 of federal funds appropriated for Pride Haven, which gave them the collateral to take out a line of credit to continue operating.

“So over the last two years, we’ve been basically operating the shelter on a line of credit,” said McLaughlin, who has been CEO since November 2023.

The line of credit matured at the end of September, but since the money promised by Cleaver’s office from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) never reached the organization, paired with a lack of other fundraising streams — Pride Haven was forced to scale back and eventually close their doors.

Last week, they were told the earmarked funds from HUD would be coming soon, but McLaughlin said their status was changed days later to rejected. Pride Haven is in communication with Cleaver’s office to find a solution.

Matt Helfant, communications director with Cleaver’s office, said they reached out to HUD Monday afternoon to resolve the issue.

“(On Wednesday), HUD made our office aware that there was a technical error in the paperwork provided to the agency, which prevented the funding from being released,” Helfant said in a statement. “We are currently working with Pride Haven and HUD to ensure the appropriate paperwork is filed so that the funding can be released as soon as possible. We fully expect the error to be corrected and the funding to be released.”

McLaughlin said there had been a lack of communication from the start as he redoes the documentation.

“It’s our first time using this system and process, and (HUD has) been consistently unhelpful in providing responses and clarity when we urgently needed it,” he said.

But the federal dollars expected will only pay back the money owed to the bank, according to McLaughlin. They need more reopen, and have employed a new chief financial officer and accountant to avoid future financial issues.

Meanwhile, the nonprofit is applying for a renewal of grant money from the Hall Foundation and to Kansas City’s Zero KC grant initiative, launched by Mayor Quinton Lucas in mid-October, where he specifically highlighted the need for providing funds to LGBTQ+ causes.

“We invite agencies, nonprofits, and other service providers to apply for these grants, regardless of their circumstances, so that all can have access to safe and dignified shelter,” he said. “In particular, we’re looking for proposals that aim to do the following: expand specialized services including having housing for those with mental health needs, substance use disorders, LGBTQ+ individuals and others with low-barrier access requirements.”

The grant application deadline is Nov. 17, and will have to be approved by the city council. Lucas hopes to begin rolling out funds by early December.

“As soon as money hits the bank with some kind of assurance that those funds will last for six months at least, we’ll open the doors back up and we want to make sure that the rest of our operations are secure as well, so that we don’t find ourselves back in a position that we were in now,” McLaughlin said.

Pride Haven — part of SAVE, Inc., another local nonprofit — alone costs about $60,000 a month to operate at full capacity, according to McLaughlin. It adds up to around $100 a day to pay for food, staff and the overhead needed.

“That’s about what you would pay for a decent hotel room, but we are adding the value of the case management and life skills coach, the safe space that they need with peer-to-peer support so they can find something that’s sustainable, intended to be permanent,” he said. “It’s a short term higher investment to secure a long term sustainable plan for each individual.”

‘It’s a safe place to be yourself’

Starlight, now 19, was kicked out of her home at 16, after she came out as transgender.

She first stayed at another shelter for a year-and-a-half, but said being transgender wasn’t respected there. She got kicked out of her second shelter for missing curfew once. After that, she stayed for a short time with her father and then on a friend’s couch.

It took her two years until she found Pride Haven’s doors. Now, a year later, Starlight has permanent housing and a part time job.

“It’s a safe place to be yourself,” she said of Pride Haven.

Many LGBTQ+ youth go through similar circumstances of not being accepted by their family, according to shelter staff. Having a designated safe space surrounded by peers, Pride Haven staff said, is an essential first step to finding housing and receiving care.

“It’s that safe space for people to be their unique selves. I think what makes me so proud about this program is that we do offer that to people,” Ramsey said. “We may not have everything, we definitely could be more, but offering that safe space gives them just a place to come and heal before they’re asked to do the adult things that they need to do.”

Pride Haven is part of the larger non profit SAVE, Inc., which has been serving the metro since 1986, originally helping those with HIV/AIDS to have a place to die with dignity. It then transitioned to help those with HIV and AIDS to find emergency, transitional and permanent housing. The parent organization has since expanded its services to help homeless individuals with mental health obstacles find housing.

In 2022, Pride Haven made up about 9% of SAVE, Inc.’s housing. Despite not being a huge chunk of the nonprofits’ overall numbers, the shelter is seen as crucial to the community.

“Whether it’s through our own youth housing programs or others in the community, we’re able to successfully permanently house about 70% of youth that come to us,” said Ramsey.

Since the shelter stopped providing overnight beds, Maiden said they already know of one youth who attempted to take their own life.

“It’s disheartening just to see the consequences of this space losing funding so quickly,” they said.

A place for youth to sleep at night and heal both their body and mind makes a huge difference, according to Ramsey. It allows them to build up rapport and trust with staff, opening up the door for to connect them to voucher programs, housing assessment, food stamps and Medicaid applications.

“To me, the pain that we’re experiencing is just a taste of what the people we’re trying to serve are experiencing,” McLaughlin said. “So if we can bear a little bit of that to try to transform these systems, to try to convince people that this funding is so essential to save these lives, like it’s a pain that’s worth bearing.”

Individuals and companies wanting to donate to Pride Haven can do so on their website.

This story was originally published October 31, 2024 at 6:30 AM.