How community 'goodwill' helped open a new shelter for LGBTQ+ young adults in Harlem

The organization, named after a homeless gender-nonconforming youth who died while unhoused, was founded in 2002. It closed on the building for Casa Cecilia last June and has spent the past year finalizing the requirements to open. The shelter marks the first property owned entirely by the AFC, which is working to convert rental units into owned units as it focuses on "figuring out how to become more self sustaining," according to President and Executive Director Alexander Roque.

For the organization to own Casa Cecilia's building took "cosmic organizing of just good intent," Roque says. It's been years in the making. The location was shown to them by the people at Million Dollar Listing, and the owner agreed to cut them a special deal on a lease-to-own contract, after which the AFC leased the building for five years until it could convert it into a shelter.

But the "goodwill" didn't stop there, Cohen says, as the community rallied support for the shelter through multiple separate fundraisers. Sam Cochran at Architectural Digest led an effort to raise over one million from the design world, rallying companies to donate new closets, paint, lights, and finishes that ensured the space was "actually welcoming and ready for our youth."

Then there was the organization's annual drag show benefit concert in October, which raised over $300,000. The Halloween-themed show featured a performance by Jay Armstrong Johnson and his friends dressed as the Sanderson Sisters from Hocus Pocus staged to “I Put a Spell On You," and special guest appearances from Academy Award winner Ariana DeBose, Broadway star and RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Jinkx Monsoon, and Drag Race alum Lagoona Bloo.

With Casa Cecilia officially open, Roque says the shelter will "add 20 more beds to the available beds in New York City" for homeless LGBTQ+ young adults. The AFC's wait list is currently at around 300.

Over one-fourth (28 percent) of LGBTQ+ youth have experienced homelessness or housing instability at some point in their lives, according to The Trevor Project. Trans and nonbinary youth were even more likely to be homeless, with 38 percent of trans girls and women, 39 percent of trans boys and men, and 35 percent of nonbinary youth reporting housing instability compared to 23 percent of cisgender LGBQ youth.

The AFC reports that it provides services and resources to over 20,000 at-risk or homeless LGBTQ+ youth each year, including over 70,000 meals. Among their clients, 80 percent were kicked out of their home, 60 percent are Black, and 30 percent are Latine.

The youth that the AFC and Casa Cecilia serve are the same that the activist dedicated her life to protecting before her tragic death in February last year. Roque, who was a close friend of Gentili, says that naming the shelter after her is a way to honor her dream of creating "a place where everyone had the space to be free, to be safe, to be loved."

"For us, it's incredibly important to honor and celebrate and identify leaders in our movements and our history, and Cecilia Gentili represented perhaps the most courageous and ardent fight for trans rights in our country, immigrant rights, women's rights, and human rights," Roque says. "For us, naming the property after her honors what she lived and believed."

The shelter doesn't just continue Gentili's work, Cohen says, but proves even in this day and age that communities can come together and that nonprofits "can be self-sustaining."

"Our approach to this has been innovative, and for funding structures and for LGBT organizations, this is an example of how we can become more self sustaining or self reliant and also inspire others to consider the same," Cohen says.

Learn more about the Ali Forney Center and donate at aliforneycenter.org.