Christmas appeal

Nick Harman left home at the age of 13 because he felt he had no other choice. He had told his mum he was gay and their already strained relationship became unbearable. Over the next five years, Harman was to live at 25 different addresses as he passed through the social care system. At that time, he says, there was only one force for good in his life: the Albert Kennedy Trust.

“The trust saved my life,” says Harman, who is now 22 and doing bar work while he completes an IT course. “It gave me the support and companionship I needed during that really hard time. And when I turned 18, it placed me in the home of a caring couple.”

The charity was set up in 1989, in memory of Albert Kennedy – a teenage runaway who fell to his death from the top of a multistorey car park, fleeing a carload of homophobic attackers. He was just 16 years old. Fifteen years later, gay people are still the victims of prejudice and violence, as the murder of David Morley in London last month shows.

There are no reliable statistics about how many lesbian, gay or bisexual young people in the UK are homeless or in need of supported housing, but there is evidence to suggest that young gay men and lesbians have higher rates of suicide that the general population. The Department of Health says those at increased risk of suicide include people “whose sexual orientation bring them into conflict with their family or others”.

Teenagers are particularly vulnerable, especially if they do not have a supportive family. That is why the trust works tirelessly, from its bases in London and Manchester, to provide lesbian, gay and bisexual people in their late teens with a safe and secure home with lesbian or gay guardians.

The trust has helped more than 550 youngsters since 1989. Its director, Richard McKendrick, says it offers specialist help that is not always available from social services or homelessness organisations. “Our founder Cath Hall, who’s now retired, is a straight woman who had been a foster carer for 20 years,” he explains. “She recognised that the gay people in her care had specific needs. So it is a core purpose of our work that gay, lesbian and bisexual young people receive support from people who have a direct insight into what it’s like to grow up gay.”

Taking teenagers’ problems seriously

For Harman, the trust was the only service that took him seriously. “The council said I was too young at 13 to know I was gay. When I asked them to let the trust place me in a gay household, it said no. I took them to court and eventually won, but the case dragged on for five years, during which time I lived in children’s homes, with straight foster parents and on friends’ floors.

The trust saved my life. It gave me support and companionship. I don’t know what I would have done without it

Nick Harman

“When I finally got placed with a couple through the trust, I stayed with them for 18 months. It was a totally different experience – I was used to doing whatever I pleased but the family environment meant I actually began to respect what my carers said.” He adds: “S0me councils are supportive of people in my situation – it’s a bit of a lottery.”

Sean Galligan has been a carer for the trust for 11 years and is now chair of the board of trustees. He got involved because he wanted to help and to use his own experiences as a gay man to give teenagers emotional support. He went through a six-month assessment, including police checks, and attended seminars where he acted out scenarios that he might have to deal with as a carer. “It was a thorough process, overseen by a social worker, that really made you think about what you were taking on,” he says.

Galligan is now helping the trust to expand into other parts of the UK. In Brighton, it has already set up placement schemes and a mentoring service for teenagers who are 13 or older. Plans are under way to provide similar services in Northern Ireland.

But there is so much more to be done. The trust wants to establish its specialised support services in Wales and Scotland and provide floating support services that help youngsters take up independent tenancies in rural areas. Galligan says more young people who are gay, lesbian or bisexual are deciding to live in the communities where they grew up, rather than moving to large cities.

It costs on average £7500 to support each placement the trust makes, including payments to carers, and social work support and counselling. The trust gets grants from charitable trusts including Comic Relief and the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund but, without the support of more volunteers and donors, it cannot keep growing and reach more vulnerable young people.

The money you donate through the Housing Today Christmas appeal will be spent on placement support and mentoring services, so please help. The trust will protect desperate youngsters from bigotry, keeping them off the streets and out of harm’s way.

As Harman says: “You can never substitute a family’s love. But for me, the next best thing was the support of the trust. I just don’t know what I would have done without it.”