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# Voices from the Street: Alyssa
- URL: https://www.cascadepbs.org/equity/2014/08/homeless-transgender-kidsatrisk-florangela-davila/
- Published: 2014-08-18T22:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-05-07T12:08:01.000Z
- Description: Alyssa is transgender and homeless. A suicide attempt put her in the hospital. When she got out, her parents wouldn't let her come home.
- Author: Florangela Davila
- Tags: Equity, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2025-04-14 07:56, #Import 2025-05-09 14:59, #article

Alyssa is transgender and homeless. A suicide attempt put her in the hospital. When she got out, her parents wouldn't let her come home.

![](http://crosscut.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Alyssa_Popup_Radio_Florangela_Davila.jpg)

Being young and homeless is tough. Being young, homeless and on the receiving end of folks questioning your gender makes life even more challenging.

Twenty-year-old Alyssa Downing (left) was born male. But she identifies as a woman. Being transgender wasn’t the only reason Downing got kicked out of her Seattle home. But it likely played a role.

After failing out of college three times and failing to get a job, her parents gave her 30 days to move out. “Around 15 days into it, I got really depressed,” says Downing. “I downed a bunch of pills.”

She wound up in the hospital. When authorities determined she was no longer suicidal, they released her but, “my parents wouldn’t let me back home so I was discharged pretty much to the street.”

[![](http://crosscut.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/logo_kar3.jpg)](http://crosscut.com/social-services/Kidsatrisk/?ref=cascadepbs.org)

Downing remained homeless for about a year, spending nights at various youth shelters in Seattle. She's had people mock her, or refuse to acknowledge her as female — she doesn’t want to wear dresses until the hormones kick in and her body becomes more feminine — but she says she's lucky she's never experienced any physical violence.

Alyssa Downing told us her story in an office at [ROOTS](http://www.rootsinfo.org/?ref=cascadepbs.org), the young adult shelter just off The Ave in Seattle’s University District where she had just spent the night. Just click below to hear it.

  
*This story was produced by Crosscut's Florangela Davila. Photo credit: Florangela Davila.*

*The Crosscut series "Voices from the Street" can also be heard on [KPLU-FM](http://www.kplu.org/?ref=cascadepbs.org).*

*You can find more "Voices from the Street" conversations [here](http://crosscut.com/2014/04/07/Kidsatrisk/119450/voices-homeless-youth-radio-florangela-davila/?ref=cascadepbs.org). To follow all Crosscut's Kids@Risk coverage, go [here](http://crosscut.com/social-services/Kidsatrisk/?ref=cascadepbs.org).*