Miley Cyrus has taken her passion for youth homelessness to the Governors office of New York State.
Im speaking up to support a request by Senator Brad Hoylman, the Empire States Pride Agenda and the Coalition for Homeless Youth to include $4.7 million for homeless youth in this years New York State Budget, Cyrus wrote in a letter to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Cyrus, who currently resides in Los Angeles, is referring to the #5000TooMany campaign, which was launched by Hoylman and a slew of activist groups, including the Empire State Pride Agenda and the Coalition for Homeless Youth. As Cyrus mentions in her letter, last month was part of an effort to bring awareness to the fact there were more than 5,000 instances in 2012 when kids were turned away from homeless shelters due to lack of beds.
Hoylman and other advocates are urging Cuomo to increase funding to battle youth homelessness in New York.
Im incredibly grateful to Miley Cyrus for her support of our campaign to restore funding for homeless youth shelters in our state budget, Hoylman told MTV News. Its unconscionable that thousands of New York kids each year are turned away from homeless youth shelters because there arent enough beds. We must act now to bring these kids in from the cold by increasing funding for homeless youth shelters.
Cyrus seems to be particularly concerned about homelessness as of late.
At the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards, where Cyrus won Video of the Year for her single Wrecking Ball, Jesse Helt, a once homeless aspiring model from Oregon, accepted Cyrus award on behalf of the 1.6 million runaways and homeless youth in the United States who are starving lost and scared for their lives right now.
At the time, Cyrus took criticism from some circles for seemingly using the issue of youth homelessness to reshape her image, something that she conceded to a certain degree on Ryan Seacrests radio show.
I just didnt realize my platform; I didnt realize my power, she told Seacrest in reference to the attention she attracted with her salacious VMA performance the year before.
If Im going to be given this loud of a voice and this big of an image and this big of a platform and this huge of an opportunity to talk to young people in America right now, what am I really trying to say? Because I dont think what I was trying to say is what happened the year before," she said.
Celebrities using awards speeches as platforms to spur social change is nothing new. This years Academy Awards was full of them, but what started as an attempt to divert the attention she knew would come from an awards show seems to have blossomed into full-on activism.
In September 2014, Cyrus founded The Happy Hippie Foundation, a nonprofit that sets its sights on rallying young people to fight injustice, starting with youth homelessness.
Cyrus posted the letter to Cuomo on her Instagram account Wednesday, declaring that she was speaking up so homeless youth in NY can have a place to sleep!!!
At the end of the day, I can wear some of the skimpiest things on stage, but if I pass somebody and I feel like Ive got to help them, and I feel connected to them I cant help myself," Cyrus told Yahoos Chris Bath last year in an interview. "I have to. It makes me, like, who I am.
Im speaking up to support a request by Senator Brad Hoylman, the Empire States Pride Agenda and the Coalition for Homeless Youth to include $4.7 million for homeless youth in this years New York State Budget, Cyrus wrote in a letter to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Cyrus, who currently resides in Los Angeles, is referring to the #5000TooMany campaign, which was launched by Hoylman and a slew of activist groups, including the Empire State Pride Agenda and the Coalition for Homeless Youth. As Cyrus mentions in her letter, last month was part of an effort to bring awareness to the fact there were more than 5,000 instances in 2012 when kids were turned away from homeless shelters due to lack of beds.
Hoylman and other advocates are urging Cuomo to increase funding to battle youth homelessness in New York.
Im incredibly grateful to Miley Cyrus for her support of our campaign to restore funding for homeless youth shelters in our state budget, Hoylman told MTV News. Its unconscionable that thousands of New York kids each year are turned away from homeless youth shelters because there arent enough beds. We must act now to bring these kids in from the cold by increasing funding for homeless youth shelters.
Cyrus seems to be particularly concerned about homelessness as of late.
At the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards, where Cyrus won Video of the Year for her single Wrecking Ball, Jesse Helt, a once homeless aspiring model from Oregon, accepted Cyrus award on behalf of the 1.6 million runaways and homeless youth in the United States who are starving lost and scared for their lives right now.
At the time, Cyrus took criticism from some circles for seemingly using the issue of youth homelessness to reshape her image, something that she conceded to a certain degree on Ryan Seacrests radio show.
I just didnt realize my platform; I didnt realize my power, she told Seacrest in reference to the attention she attracted with her salacious VMA performance the year before.
If Im going to be given this loud of a voice and this big of an image and this big of a platform and this huge of an opportunity to talk to young people in America right now, what am I really trying to say? Because I dont think what I was trying to say is what happened the year before," she said.
Celebrities using awards speeches as platforms to spur social change is nothing new. This years Academy Awards was full of them, but what started as an attempt to divert the attention she knew would come from an awards show seems to have blossomed into full-on activism.
In September 2014, Cyrus founded The Happy Hippie Foundation, a nonprofit that sets its sights on rallying young people to fight injustice, starting with youth homelessness.
Cyrus posted the letter to Cuomo on her Instagram account Wednesday, declaring that she was speaking up so homeless youth in NY can have a place to sleep!!!
At the end of the day, I can wear some of the skimpiest things on stage, but if I pass somebody and I feel like Ive got to help them, and I feel connected to them I cant help myself," Cyrus told Yahoos Chris Bath last year in an interview. "I have to. It makes me, like, who I am.