FOCUS Ireland
As BeLonG To’s Youth Work Manager for the last ten years, Gillian Brien finds herself at the coalface of the myriad issues facing LGBT+ young people, including homelessness. In the last three years she has witnessed the issue grow to the extent that BeLonG To’s ability to respond effectively is constrained by the wider homelessness pandemic. With a crisis as extensive as Ireland’s, she says, resources that could go towards specialist services, like those targeted towards LGBT+ young people, are quickly expended.