Having been opened about her experience as homeless teen, the 'Without Me' singer will be celebrated along with Maddie and Mackenzie Ziegler at a Los Angeles gala held by My Friend's Place.
- Mar 13, 2019
AceShowbiz - Halsey is to be honoured by executives of a nonprofit organisation which helps homeless youths in Los Angeles.
The "Without Me" singer, who has been open about her experiences with homelessness, will be honoured as one of the "champions" of My Friend's Place, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit and homeless youth resource centre, at a benefit in April.
"Connection, community, visibility and the space to craft one's own identity is at the core of the work being done at My Friend's Place," My Friend's Place executive director Heather Carmichael said while announcing the honourees. "It is there, standing by our side in partnership, that you will find our 2019 honorees, demonstrating their unwavering commitment to our young people."
The "Ending Youth Homelessness: A Benefit For My Friend's Place" celebration, which includes a dinner, silent auction and awards presentation, will take place at the Hollywood Palladium on April 6. Other honourees including bosses of fashion brand ModCloth, 16-year-old dancer Maddie Ziegler, known for her work with Sia Furler, and her actress sister Mackenzie Ziegler, 14.
After Halsey, 24, first claimed that she had been homeless as a teenager, social media users blasted her story, saying she was posting videos online from the same bedroom at the time, and she clarified that she had been "in between living situations" in a 2017 interview with Britain's Guardian.
"I get it all the time," she said. "People say: 'How could you be homeless, you were a One Direction fan?!' It's like, can't you be both? Everyone wants to pick on me all the time."
She explained she had been disowned by her parents for not going to college and she moved to New York City and lived with a drug addict she had started dating. She added, "People might say it doesn't 'count', but it counted to me."
