Elijah was facing homelessness on Valentine’s Day last year.
He knew his parents would kick him out if he pursued gender-affirming care, so he reached out to a shelter months in advance of his 18th birthday — when he could legally leave home and not be considered a runaway minor.
Elijah would secretly squirrel a few extra items of clothes or objects away from home every day and store them at his high school. Thrive Youth Center, which is often at capacity, had a bed waiting for him.
“That was just pure luck,” he said. “And a lot of scheming on my end.”
Thrive Youth Center, located inside San Antonio’s largest homeless shelter, is the first and only shelter in the city that caters services to LGBTQ youths who have been kicked out of their homes by their parents or otherwise found themselves unhoused.
Read the full story on the San Antonio Report website here.
