Homeless youth who are members of a sexual minority often experience verbal and physical abuse in Toronto’s shelters — a problem staff aren’t properly trained to deal with, according to a University of Toronto researcher.

A city study recently revealed that almost one in five homeless youth are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or queer. U of T doctoral candidate Alex Abramovich is calling on the city to open a shelter specifically for that group, and to provide staff at other shelters with mandatory training for dealing with homophobia and transphobia among shelter users.

Young gay and transgendered people flock to Toronto from across the province, Abramovich said, driven from their homes by intolerant families and stifling small-town values. Many expect a warm welcome in the progressive metropolis.

But youth shelters can be harrowing places, he found during seven years of research.

“You know what they do in the shelters,” one queer youth told Abramovich. “They tie you to the bed and beat the s--- out of you.”

Another gay youth Abramovich heard about from shelter staff was beaten up in the shower. “It was a very brutal beating, and it was because he was gay,” Abramovich said.

In his unpublished dissertation, Abramovich writes that the shelter system’s dangers are driving queer youth onto the streets. One told him of spending months living in a city park rather than braving the taunts and threats of physical attack in youth shelters.

“It’s become accepted that (shelters are) an unsafe place for LGBT youth,” Abramovich said.

There are no firm statistics on homophobic incidents in youth shelters, because victims rarely report them.

As one youth told Abramovich, “I’ve just been beaten up for being gay — the last thing I want to do is call the City of Toronto.”

Young people are widely reluctant to file official complaints, whether in hospitals, schools, or homeless shelters, said Maura Lawless, executive director at the Gay Village community centre 519.

Though shelters are required to publicly display a complaint-line phone number, staff rarely explain how to lodge a complaint, Abramovich said.

“I spoke to 11 youth for this study, and not one of them had heard of this complaint line,” Abramovich said.

In his research, Abramovich detected a pattern of staff turning a blind eye to homophobic and transphobic incidents.

“The staff see it and don’t do anything about it,” Abramovich said. “They hear homophobic slurs and just walk away.”

He suggests this occurs because workers in the city’s 11 youth shelters haven’t been trained to detect prejudice against gay and transgendered people. One shelter staffer asked Abramovich if the word “lesbian” was considered an insult.

Though shelter managers receive mandatory “anti-oppression” training, Abramovich sat in on one session and found it contained little information about homophobia.

“They do mention a tiny bit about homophobia, but it’s such a minor, minor part of the course,” he said.

Training on transgendered issues is “recommended” for shelter staff, but not mandatory.

Patricia Anderson, the city’s shelter, support and housing spokesperson, wrote in an email that, “in the City’s view, transgendered clients are the most vulnerable within an already vulnerable group.”

Apart from improved training, Abramovich wants the city to create a transitional housing facility specifically for LGBTQ youth.

No such facility exists in Canada, though they are a familiar sight in U.S. cities such as New York and Chicago.

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Anderson said the city would not take a position on a gay-specific shelter before September, when the department will release a fuller report on Toronto’s homeless population.

Lawless, who worked in the city shelter system before moving to 519, supports a specialized youth shelter.

“There very clearly is a need, until queer folk are welcome” in other youth shelters, she said. “The city needs to step up and put a proposal out.”