Through collaborations with community partner agencies, we provide our guests with a wide range of specialized services that are important for their health and well-being. Our guests need assistance to address concerns such as medical conditions, mental health problems or legal issues.
Family Reconciliation
We partner with community organizations to provide proactive family reconciliation at our first stage of enrollment. This acts as one of our mechanisms to prevent homelessness and encourage family acceptance.
Transitional Housing
We offer accommodation and support for LGBTQ youths who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless and of ages between 18-24 years and with who efforts of family reconciliation have failed. This housing is only transitional and temporary, as they receive training on how to be independent adults that can support themselves.
Mental Health Support
We offer supportive services to homeless youth who need it. These range from psychosocial support with trained counsellors and therapists to mentoring programs and life skills training. Life training and mentoring programs are mainly for youth under the transitional housing program and with who reconciliation option has completely failed.
Research
We are currently underway with plans to conduct numerous research activities on the issue of queer youth homelessness in order to avail proper data on the size & impact of queer youth homelessness in Kenya and East Africa at large.
These research activities are to be held in collaboration with other pro-queer organizations that work to eliminate issues like homelessness among many others within queer communities.
Testimonies
At age 19, I was struggling with my sense of identity and a relationship breakup with my parents left me homeless. It is not until when I was enrolled into the Kenneth and Jacob’s House programs that I was able turn my life around and two years now, after their family reconciliation program, I am still in talks with my parents even though it is not as before.
Sasha
When I got there, I felt relieved. They did not treat me like an outsider… I began to feel comfortable, at home and safe.
I never knew how it feels to be homeless and gay, until I lost my job in 2020 during Covid pandemic. I had been staying in a rental apartment until one of my neighbors outed me to the rest of the tenants that I received an eviction notice from the landlord based on homophobic complains. This was a tough period I had nowhere to go to, after series of trials I decided to reach out to Kenneth and Jacob’s House through their partner organization. During my stay I was enrolled through services such as access to counseling sessions that boosted my mental well-being, job placement training through which I was able to get skills that enabled me to update my CV and was lucky enough to have landed on a job opportunity that opened door to permanent rehousing.
Terry
My first time at Kenneth and Jacob’s House, I did not know what to expect as a homeless queer person. I have trust issues in new environments, making it difficult to get close to people. But, when I got there, I felt relieved. They did not treat me like an outsider. As I got to know everybody, I began to feel comfortable, at home and safe.
Victor
Partners
True Colors United is an American nonprofit organisation addressing the issue of youth homelessness in the United States. Founded in 2008 by Cyndi Lauper, the organization focuses on the unique experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth, who make up 40% of the homeless youth population in America.
PEMA-K started off and continues to operate as a community-based organisation (CBO) that champions inclusion of gender and sexual minorities in the coastal region of Kenya. PEMA-K has also worked closely with other organisations that share the same vision countrywide. PEMA-K was founded within a context of tragedy and death, when a young gay man, shunned and stigmatised by his family because of his sexual orientation, died in May 2008. There was no one to honour his memory or give him a decent burial. Stunned by such a level of loathing for gay people, a group of gay men in Mombasa came together to find a decent and dignified resting place for him. It was this support of one of their own that gave birth to the organisation. Because of this history, the original membership of PEMA-K comprised only gay and bisexual men. The membership has now expanded to include other GSM; that is, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer (LGBTIQ) people.
galck+, formerly The Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya, is the National SOGIE umbrella body, representing LGBTQ+ voices across Kenya.
Kenneth And Jacob's House 