Eden feels safer on the street than a hostel, where they must identify as a man or woman for a bed.
The non-binary 24-year-old has been sleeping in a Brisbane CBD shopfront since January.
The city's rental market is tighter than it has ever been – but for people who are gender diverse, the options are even more limited.
Eden was at a men's hostel dormitory at the start of the year but felt they had to hide their identity.
"A lot of emergency accommodation is very rigid and very binary in how they care for people," Eden said.
"I'm not the kind of person to care about what other people think of me but at the same time when I'm in this situation, I'm so vulnerable. I don't know if they're going to want to hurt me and just for not fitting into their expectations of what gender is."
"It's terrifying and isolating and depressing because I can't be myself," they added.
Violence at home
Nationally, rental vacancies are at an all-time low, and Brisbane is now the second least affordable capital.
LGBTQIA+ young people are twice as likely to be homeless, and about half will have compromised or sub-standard living conditions, according to the National LGBTI Health Alliance.
For those who identify as gender diverse, that jumps to 71 per cent.
And for many of their community, they can’t ride out the housing crisis living with mum and dad.
Griffith University lecturer Katie Hail-Jares spoke to dozens of young couch surfers for studies with Brisbane Youth Service.
Almost all gender diverse young people they interviewed had experienced transphobic violence at home, and were very often leaving home "because of their family's negative reaction to their gender identity," she said.
And they often come for help while they're still at home.
"LGBTQIA+ young people try to utilise these services while they are still living at home and as they're experiencing high levels of family violence.
"Eventually that violence forces them to leave home, and they become homeless. There is no safety net for these young people, so they may end up couch surfing with school friends, acquaintances or even strangers.
"And once they are couch surfing, rather than experience safety, that exploitation and violence continues," Dr Hail-Jares, who lectures in criminology and criminal justice, said.
There is no dedicated housing for LGBTQIA+ people in Queensland.
Stigma and discrimination
Open Doors Youth Service in Brisbane supports LGBTQIA+ young people.
More than 85 per cent of the young people they supported this year were trans or gender diverse.
They face extra hurdles to secure housing, both in the private rental sector and accessing homeless services, service manager Sally Morris said.
"They tend to leave home younger and also because of stigma and discrimination, they tend to struggle at school so they tend not necessarily to have a good education behind them," Ms Morris said.
Ms Morris also runs a Facebook group for LGBTQIA+ renters, which has 3,800 members, with more than 200 joining in the past month.
She said there are more people looking for a room than ever before, and they're getting more desperate.
Gender diverse young people often feel unsafe seeking services — many of which are faith-based, she said.
Their ID may not match their identity, or they may feel a need to "pass and blend in" rather than be "out", which can bring its own risks, for example if someone sees them changing.
"'There's all these hurdles on top of being homeless to begin with," she said.
"They opt not to go to those services, because it feels safer to not be there at all".
Never a safe space
Eden's day is a patchwork of services, beginning with a church breakfast.
None of those spaces feel safe.
Eden has never had a secure home — not with family, or in the seven years since leaving their parents' at 17.
They've slept in a tent, and for months in their car, but couldn't afford repairs. They've lived in private rentals, but have never been on a lease.
"It's really hard to find these people that do accept you – and even if they are accepting of your gender identity, are they going to be accepting of the mental health problems that are really prevalent in our community as well?" Eden, who gets help from BYS, said.
"There's so many factors that narrow down where we feel safe, and where we can be ourselves."
What needs to be done?
Brisbane Youth Service provided urgent support to more than 3,000 young people last year — a number that has increased 88 per cent in the past three years.
The number of those who identified as gender diverse rose by 24 per cent in in 2021-22.
Dr Hail-Jares wants dedicated housing for LGBTQIA+ people.
"We know that their housing homelessness rates outpace their peers who are not gender diverse and that would be a huge step forward," she said.
"We know if we house people first, that then many of those other stressors fall away, and they're able to actually engage with things like mental health care and seek out a GP to get support for disability or address trauma that they've experienced at home."
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Department of Housing said the Queensland government funded specialist housing services across the state which can support LGBTQIA+ people.
"These services, and our frontline Housing Service Centre staff take a person-centred approach to ensure they can understand the person’s immediate housing and safety needs and their pathway to longer term, safe and sustainable housing," they said.
"Our staff are provided resources, training and information to help them to tailor housing assistance with appropriate supports for LGBTQIA+ people."
However none of these are especially for LGBTQIA+ people.
Change also needs to go beyond services, Dr Hail-Jares said.
"We need to make society a safer place for trans and gender diverse young people. This large-scale social shift needs to happen in how we treat young people who are trans and gender diverse, and how we support them."
