That's a fairly broad brush you are painting. The vast majority of churches are uplifting to gays even if some are not. Even the mormons have chilled out about it. Who would have thunk it?
What is being described in this Chapter is literally human trafficking. Our protagonist is involved in major crimes. Brussels has many cafes where one can enjoy mussels - so good.
This story is proceeding at the same time as 'The Nekromancer" which has many similar themes but takes a different, darker approach with a similarly aged protagonist. I'm enjoying the contrast between the two.
Nice. Orgies are important in gay culture and they are rarely depicted in stories on sites like this. You read all this true love romance stuff but nobody writes about the bath houses, back rooms & other play places. A most welcome adventure.
I've got to say that I did not need this character review at all. The fact that I've been able, as I guess may be the same with other readers, to keep track of so many characters is a testament to the clarity and consistency of your storytellling & world building.
If a cop saw a homeless kid, that kid is getting taken to the station and picked up by a social worker. That said, I like the meal distribution. Can you flush out some of the kids (1-2) with maybe a personality, developing a bond, or a physical description?
Those numbers are misleading. They are counting people in transient housing, shelters, flopping & sometimes cars w/ their parent. I've been to countries with street children. You see them. There are no appreciable numbers of abandoned street children in the US - they get reported to authorities and put in the foster system very quickly. There are teen runaways but they tend to be mid-older teens w/ lots of problems. They don't usually last long on the streets either, but are often exploited. Human trafficking of children is another problem.
The 'hunger' statistics are about 'food insecurity' or not knowing where your source of income for food is. Our poor are usually overweight. There is almost no malnutrition in the USA which would belie 'hunger'. We consider undernourished children to be abuse victims.
The most cute 10-13 year old boys living in parks you'll ever find in America will be on gay story sites like this one.