Adam Medrano, the council member who chairs City Hall's LGBT Task Force, said Wednesday that Dallas has set a goal of dramatically reducing homelessness among gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender youth by 2020.

But there's one problem: No one in this city has any idea how many LGBT kids live in Dallas.

There's little question how they wound up on the streets, according to homeless service providers, religious leaders and public school officials. Many have been kicked out of their homes by parents who consider their sexual orientation or gender identity a sin.

Others, still, "are questioning," said Rev. Neil Cazares-Thomas, senior pastor at Cathedral of Hope. "It's almost like they're caught in this void."

Their ranks are but rough guesstimates based, in large part, on national surveys and studies that say around 40 percent of kids seen by service providers self-identify as LGBT. But no two homeless head counts are the same, which is why some local agencies say the number could be in the dozens and others in the high hundreds among the thousands of Dallas children sleeping in cars, under bridges, on a friend's couch or in a last-chance motel.

But whatever the number, until it's zero, LGBT youth homelessness has become one of the task force's top priorities, Medrano said. And it has led to the creation of Outlast Youth, a collaboration among the city, DISD, Dallas police, state offices and local homeless service providers intent on finding beds, counseling, health care and job training for kids on the streets and on their own.

"This is an opportunity to connect all the dots and leave no stone unturned," said Dr. Ashley Lind, CEO of Promise House, which shelters at-risk kids who, among other things, have been turned out of their homes or run away.

Promise House recently opened a group home in Oak Cliff for LGBT youth between ages 18 and 21, but it can house only a handful: There are just four beds. Cazares-Thomas said Wednesday that there's a profound need for a shelter that would sleep 30 to 40 each night. Such shelters exist in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco.

From left: Josh Cogan, program director of Outlast Youth; Dallas City Council member Adam Medrano; LGBT Task Force member Pam Gerber; and Promise House CEO Ashley Lind. (Robert Wilonsky/Staff)

Cazares-Thomas said Cathedral of Hope, the world's largest LGBT congregation, would be willing to operate such a shelter given the dearth of safe places for at-risk youth who come to the church, the Resource Center in Oak Lawn or Promise House.

"There's no shelter that is specifically LGBT," said the reverend. "And there are gaps, enormous gaps. If, for instance, you're under the age of 18, in order to get medication you need to get a guardian, so a lot of these kids go under the radar. And they don't feel safe in the traditional shelters, especially if they're transgender."

The issue has been much discussed over the past year by the task force, pushed, in large part, by Josh Cogan, a former youth minister and Deep Ellum-based "church planter" who is helping spearhead Outlast Youth. It was Cogan who brought the issue to Medrano and, eventually, Mayor Mike Rawlings, after he said he met eight kids in Deep Ellum who told him different versions of the same story.

"They had all been kicked out of their Christian homes," he said. "And it stuck with me to the point where I wasn't sleeping well for the next couple of weeks."

Rawlings has long made it clear that when a bond package goes before voters in November, he will seek millions for permanent supportive housing. Medrano said Wednesday that the mayor has also promised to put some of that money toward sheltering LGBT youth.

"Homelessness is a serious issue in our city and a top priority for me," Rawlings said in a prepared statement. "I'm particularly concerned about youth in our city who are experiencing homelessness due in part to their sexual orientation, gender identity and expression."