HONOREE
KATE BARNHART
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NEW ALTERNATIVES FOR LGBT HOMELESS YOUTH
Kate Barnhart, executive director of New Alternatives for LGBT Homeless
Youth, has a long history of activism, arrested multiple times for civil
disobedience as part of ACT UP/ NY, in protesting issues related to AIDS,
healthcare generally, police brutality, and immigration, and as part of the
anti-Trump resistance.
young felons at CASES, an alternative-to-incarceration program that serves
vulnerable populations including teens involved in Family Court, young
people facing felony convictions, arrestees with mental health needs, and
Kate has worked with at-risk youth since 1994 — for six years with
women. Since 2001, Kate has devoted her career to working with LGBTQ youth, for fi ve years directing Sylvia’s Place, an emergency
shelter for homeless queer youth based out of the Metropolitan Community Church of New York.
In 2008, she helped found New Alternatives. The group aims to increase LGBTQ homeless youth’s self-suffi ciency by helping
them transition out of the shelter system and build stable adult lives. The group provides long-term support through weekly case
management, education services, life skills training, recreation based in community-building, opportunities for self-expression, and
specifi c programs tailored for those who are HIV-positive.
New Alternatives’ staff is small, but the group is nimble. When the COVID-19 crisis shuttered many meals providers across the
city, New Alternatives stepped up — increasing its hot meals program from one weekday plus Sunday to a daily effort. That meant
dozens of meals on weekdays and up to 80 on Sundays.
Kate, meanwhile, was putting out other fi res occasioned by the pandemic. In addition to providing masks and hygiene supplies to
the group’s clients, she was pressing the city’s Department of Homeless Services, which typically does not serve non-adults, to get six
New Alternatives clients with coronavirus symptoms into isolation beds in hotels. DHS, at that moment, was her only option — offi cials
at the city’s Department of Youth and Community Development, the agency that serves homeless youth, she told Gay City News,
“don’t even have their isolation units open yet.”
In 2017, New Alternatives was recognized as one of fi ve organizations out of 500 applicants selected for a “Renewal Award” for
social innovation from The Atlantic magazine and Allstate.
“We’re really grateful for the recognition for our small but dedicated organization,” Kate said at the time. “Twenty-thousand dollars
makes a tremendous difference to us as we operate on a modest budget and are mostly driven by volunteers committed to the underserved
Gay City News Impact Awards 2020 13
LGBT homeless youth of New York.”
As she explained to The Atlantic at the time, most case management of homeless youth is tied to the housing non-profi t groups
provide their clients. With many homeless youth — often with histories of trauma — experiencing short-term stays, Kate said, they
suffer a “lack of consistent long-term case-management services.”
“Well, I can do something here,” she said about the importance of the ongoing case management New Alternatives provides to
its vulnerable clientele.
In her free time, Kate rescues and rehabilitates stray cats.