LGBTQ senior housing planned for Oakland
The Presbyterian SeniorCare Network is planning a $ 35 million housing community that would be LGBTQ friendly, and the nonprofit is seeking $ 7.5 million in state grants for the development.
The tentative location is in Oakland for an 80- unit mixedincome, mixed- use senior housing community, said James Pieffer, senior vice president of the Presbyterian SeniorCare Network.
A location has been chosen, but he declined to disclose it until a deal is final. He expects that to happen by January. The new housing would be open early in 2023, he said.
“We really think LGBTQfriendly housing is needed,” he said. “This is a group that is poorly served by the system, that doesn’t feel they fit well in the larger community.”
The network plans to apply for low- income housing tax credits in 2021 and to seek private funding as well, he said.
Mr. Pieffer said he had heard stories of LGBTQ people being bullied and rejected by their family members.
“It tears you apart on a personal level,” he said. “We took this idea to our board of directors, that this was something we wanted to do.”
Kathi Boyle, coordinator of Services & Advocacy for LGBT Elders at the Persad Center, said her generation of LGBTQ seniors is going “back into the closet due to fear of mistreatment.”
“There is plenty of proof that this has happened,” she said. “Why do we need a predominately LGBTQ community? So we can feel safe enough to live our lives without fear of mistreatment or discrimination. Seniors can be bullies and bullies make seniors live a life that is not authentic.”
Already, she said, many senior facilities’ staff and residents have received training from Persad to be welcoming, including veterans homes.
Ms. Boyle said LGBTfriendly housing is an increasingly popular concept. She estimated there are about 20 LGBTQ retirement communities around the U. S. It is estimated that 3% to 11% of the general population identifies as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer.
The Presbyterian SeniorCare Network recently issued a request for proposals from architects for the project that it wants to do here, Mr. Pieffer said.
To plan appropriately, he said, the network sought help from the Persad Center, an LGBTQ support and advocacy organization in Lawrenceville.
Ms. Boyle said Presbyterian SeniorCare had requested that she train its management team in creating “a welcoming and competent care for LGBTQ seniors.”
“During the process of the training, I mentioned how the first question I usually get from members of the LGBTQ community is, ‘ When will we have our own retirement space?’” she said.
Ms. Boyle said network representatives held conversations with the community she serves to find out what a housing community should be like.
“PSC has spent a generous amount of time and resources on this project, and I truly believe it will happen,” she said. “They have been friends of the LGBTQ community and the HIV/ AIDS community since they started [ the former] Corpus Christi House in the 1980s to care for folks affected by that epidemic.”
She said the concerns about being treated well in mainstream housing is wellfounded.
One woman, who is 84 and asked that her name not be used, said she has been living in senior housing for about four years and is happy where she is, but she is not comfortable letting other residents know that she is a lesbian.
“This age group would not be comfortable with that,” she said. “It’s not a problem because my support system is not here” where she lives. “If I didn’t have a support system outside here, it would be a problem.”
She participates in social activities with SAGE ( Services & Advocacy for LGBTQ Elders).
Ms. Boyle brings together about 20 people online on Zoom livestreaming on Tuesdays and in person on Thursdays in Westinghouse Park.
The woman who did not wish to be named said she would much prefer to live in an LGBTQ- friendly housing community.
“Oh sure, of course. It would be wonderful. And there’s a great need for it,” she said.
Presbyterian SeniorCare provides housing for more than 2,000 seniors in 35 affordable housing communities in the region, some of those with partner organizations, Mr. Pieffer said.
In planning for this community, he said, the network’s representatives visited communities in several other cities. Most of those serve people who make less than 50% of their areas’ median incomes. The median income for Allegheny County is $ 46,500 for a single person.
Mr. Pieffer said 60 of the 80 units being planned would be for people who make between $ 25,000 and $ 32,500. The others would be rented at market rate.