Making Room: Three Decades of Fighting for Beds, Belonging, and a Safe Place for LGBTQ Youth

From the founder of the nation's largest housing program for homeless LGBTQ youth, a tender, uplifting account of his friendship with a nonbinary teenager and dozens of queer kids who inspired him to live a life of service and resistance Our need for family is not easily extinguished. Carl Siciliano met Ali Forney--a Black nonbinary teenager overflowing with life--in 1994 while working at a daytime center for homeless youth in New York City. Nineteen years old and driven from home, Forney was the heart of the community, known for infectious laughter, fierce loyalty to friends, and an unshakeable faith that "my God will love me for who I am." Then Forney was murdered, a moment of horror and devastation that exposed the brutality that teenagers like Forney faced in a city marked by gentrification, housing insecurity, and the onslaught of the AIDS epidemic. Motivated by Forney's spirit, Siciliano fought to create a home where unhoused teens could live and feel loved--bolstered by his own