San Diego Joins Other Major Cities in Offering LGBT Seniors a Lower-Cost Housing Option

As reported in the San Diego Tribune, Housing for Gay Seniors Coming to San Diego

A local nonprofit is preparing to build San Diego’:s first low-income apartment complex geared for senior citizens who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. When the 76-unit complex opens in North Park, San Diego will join Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and San Francisco as cities that provide this kind of housing.

 

Such housing is considered crucial because members of the LGBT community often feel unwelcome in ordinary senior complexes, where the older residents tend to be less open to alternative lifestyles.

 

“The people who will live here paved the way for younger LGBT generations, and many of them are forced back into the closet in traditional senior communities because of a lack of acceptance,” said Delores Jacobs, chief executive of the San Diego LGBT Community Center.

 

The $27 million complex will be open to all seniors, but the nonprofit building it — Community HousingWorks — plans to create a welcoming environment for LGBT seniors that will encourage them to move in, including on-site supportive services coordinated by the local LGBT Community Center.