Brighton and the LGBTQ+ homeless

July 2026 Dan, Housing Advocate & Campaigner

"It’s amazing today after all that’s happened these last 10 years in which the LGBTQ+ community have faced a barrage of judgement on the way we live our normal lives. If we’re not told to still not show public displays of love and affection only to get some straight person constantly reminding us, we are minority’s and only they can be human."

This is not a stain on everyone this city is one of the most inclusive cites to live for anyone, no one buts an eyelid locally. Brighton & Hove loves to market itself as a City of Sanctuary and a safe haven for LGBTQ+ people, and on paper there are schemes backed by the council and charities to support vulnerable LGBTQ+ residents into safer housing. But while pilots grab headlines, the reality on our streets is that LGBTQ+ homelessness is rising and our community is still plugging the gaps with sofas and spare rooms where the system refuses to act.

But for some in our community, trans people they have had it the hardest, those fleeing war zones we create as powers change, hard line governments take hold. It becomes dangerous to lives in a society which from the top down denies them, they can be imprisoned, seriously hurt and in many cases, we have seen death just for being LGBTQ+

Brighton and Hove are a City of Sanctuary and I have to ask this question with LGBTQ+ homelessness still a significant issue in the city, we are a community so people help others out, a sofa for a week, a room for a month, we are already helping where the system is not.

My worry is of course safeguarding; will these landlords be ethical or is there an agenda? When the state and official services fall short, people with rooms and spare keys step in – some out of solidarity, some with agendas. Without proper funded LGBTQ+ housing, we leave our own at the mercy of slum landlords, chem-sex grooming and exploitation dressed up as a ‘lifeline’. Are these people clean, and at risk of developing drug problems? Absolutely, we are seeing it time and time again.

Today I still get people tagging me for so many homelessness cases, the city has time and time again said they will provide a safe space for the homeless or about to be homeless.

I think it’s time for our community to stand together again, Brighton Pride has its 30th Anniversary this year, in 30 years homelessness within our community and that insecurity has blighted many in our community.

The late James Ledward (see the James Ledward Centre) knew this, he realised homelessness is a critical juncture for people in our community, an opportunity to provide hope, and not to leave people to face so many uncertainties. This year marks ten years since I became homeless, they placed me into a general needs emergency accommodation, I can’t help feeling how much better my own journey and health would have been had I have been in a safer space, away from general homeless hostels chaos.

Brighton Pride has seen significant community anger developing as the annual event becomes more commercial, and costly, outpricing locals in the much part nowadays, and with the recent scandal on the rainbow fund, the pride social impact fund money, we need to see reform. Recent years have seen park tickets pushed above £60 for final release, firmly out of reach for many low-income queer people in the city. At the same time, the Brighton Rainbow Fund – the charity meant to distribute Pride money – has admitted it owes over £130,000 in unpaid grants and is under Charity Commission scrutiny after around £280,000 was given or loaned to organisations run by its former chair.

Part of this could be about legacy, the community need a real focus and I believe homelessness is the issue the pride team need to consider and housing our own, relieving suffering this community faces 365 days a year. Imagine if, instead of vanishing into opaque ‘pots’, even £5 from every Pride in the Park ticket was ring-fenced into a transparent, community-controlled LGBTQ+ housing fund, audited independently every year. At current ticket prices that would very quickly become bricks, mortar and staffed safe spaces, not just rainbow-washed branding.

Brighton Pride cannot continue this current path. As a born and raised Brightonian, I’ve seen the LGBTQ+ community change significantly, there have been a lot of changes which mean division has creeped into our community, some parts particularly the most destitute and vulnerable, they are isolated and in need.

A community own legacy homeless housing project locally for our community will not only attract stars to the bill, seeing the real social benefit, bricks and mortar. I have pitched this with the pride team and hope they change direction and look more within the biggest issues locally.

This does not mean other areas lose, many of these issues intersect and a new focus and project can go live, when one is completed.

We need to see bold reform in this city for a fully inclusive and legacy based Brighton Pride. It’s clear the council won’t help us, so our community need to. If Brighton Pride can charge over £60 a head for a day in the park, it can afford to guarantee a fixed share of every ticket and every bar sale into a permanent LGBTQ+ homelessness and housing fund, run at arm’s length from the Rainbow Fund and any private interests. As a community we should now demand three things: full transparency on where Pride money goes, an independent housing legacy project with real community control, and a public timeline for delivering the first units of LGBTQ+ – led homeless accommodation in this city. Until we see that, the rhetoric about Brighton as a ‘safe haven’ will ring hollow for those freezing on our seafront and sofa-surfing from crisis to crisis like to email Brighton Pride demanding the £5 per ticket legacy fund pledge by Pride 2026, tag them on socials with #PrideHousesOurOwn.

Read more about Daniel Harris, Housing Advocate & Campaigner, on his Campaigning website