A program that has helped provide housing to more than 50 central Ohio LGBTQIA+ youth who were experiencing homelessness is ending.
Kaleidoscope Youth Center’s Housing Program is closing after a grant supporting it was not renewed by the Ohio Department of Health.
ODH’s Services for Homeless Youth and Homeless Pregnant Youth Grant operates on a two-year cycle, with the previous cycle ending June 30. The department gave Kaleidoscope $227,247 ($113,623 per year) in fiscal years 2024 and 2025.
“This grant has been a significant source of funding for our housing program since 2021,” Kaleidoscope said in a statement. “Notably, this information was received approximately 45 days past the start date of July 1st, and we are now left with a pending deficit and the need to quickly relocate 10 young people without resources.”
ODH received 18 applications for funding for the 2025-26 cycle and had $2.2 million to be awarded, ODH spokesperson Ken Gordon said.
“Kaleidoscope Youth Center’s application was scored, and based on its low score compared to other applicants, the center was not one of the 15 applicants that were awarded the limited amount of funds available in the current grant cycle,” he said in an email.
Kaleidoscope scored 120 out of 205 points, according to Gordon.
“The executive summary section includes information about the target audience for the project, but without local data, it makes it difficult to understand why this population was picked,” ODH wrote in an Aug. 19 letter to Kaleidoscope. “… Overall, this application was missing important key requirements throughout the narrative, making it difficult to understand how each deliverable would be carried out.”
Kaleidoscope is able to re-apply for the next grant cycle, which starts July 1, 2027.
KYC housing program
Kaleidoscope, which serves LGBTQ+ youth ages 12-24, started the housing program in 2019 and informed current participants in the program about the closure on Sept. 8, Kaleidoscope said in a statement.
“Although we do not have a current date by which they will need to move, the soonest would be early to mid-November,” Kaleidoscope said in a statement.
Kaleidoscope’s goal is to maintain the housing program through July 2026 when the final lease ends.
“This would provide the resources and time to safely and humanely transition current participants while decreasing the threat of returning to homelessness,” according to the statement. “Our youth are scared, and so are we. It is not okay that they are facing the threat of returning to homelessness.”
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine used his veto power to nix a provision in the state’s two-year budget that would have prohibited giving funds to youth homeless shelters that house transgender youth, even if they also serve youth who are not transgender.
Nearly a quarter of LGBTQ youth reported experiencing homelessness or housing instability at some point in their lives, according to a 2022 report by the Trevor Project.Those who experiences homelessness or housing instability were also two to four times more likely to report depression, anxiety and self-harm, along with considering or attempting suicide, the report found.
LGBTQ+ youth are 120% more likely to experience homelessness than non-LGBTQ youth, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless.
Originally published by the Ohio Capital Journal. Republished here with permission.