SENIORS
BP Off Key in Speech as LGBTQ Senior Housing Opens
Eric Adams invokes slavery, predicts building will “divide” and be “disruptive”
BY MATT TRACY
A feel-good moment marking the
opening of the city’s fi rst LGBTQfriendly
affordable senior housing
development took a wild turn when
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams took
the podium, expressed discontent about the
building’s racial makeup — an observation at
odds with its actual demographics — invoked
slavery, and predicted that the residence could
lead to trouble in the neighborhood.
The beep’s snippy comments, obtained by
Gay City News via an audio recording, were
made during Advocacy & Services for LGBT
Elders’ (SAGE) December 17 ribbon-cutting
ceremony for Stonewall House, a newly-erected
residential building at 112 St. Edwards Street
on land that also contains NYCHA’s 75-year-old
Ingersoll Houses.
BFC Partners and SAGE partnered on the
project as part of the NextGeneration NYCHA,
which entails putting infi ll housing on NYCHA
property.
Some of Adams’ comments were fi rst reported
by the New York Post .
KAMILA HARRIS
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, during a ribbon-cutting for
the city’s fi rst LGBTQ-friendly apartment building for seniors, surprised
the audience with critical remarks alleging a lack of diversity
in the project and warning of neighbhorhood disruption.
Stonewall House is now home to seniors 62
years and older, 77 percent of whom are people
of color. All residents have incomes below 50
percent of the area’s median household income,
25 percent of the apartments were set aside for
formerly homeless seniors, and 54 of the 145
units were reserved for residents of NYCHA or
those on the waiting list for city public housing.
Yet from the get-over of his remarks, Adams
griped that he is “concerned about the diversity”
in the new development and said nearby residents
have complained that Stonewall House is
a “pretty building on NYCHA property.”
“I don’t want to see beautiful fl oors like this
and lead paint over there,” he said. “I don’t want
to see rodents over there and comfort here.”
He did not mention that many incoming residents
are arriving from NYCHA apartments.
According to SAGE, less than 60 percent of
the residents of Stonewall House identify as LGBTQ,
though the building did not — and could
not legally — screen potential residents based
on sexual orientation or gender identity or ask
for such information on applications.
The borough president segued from his comments
about diversity into a discussion about
➤ ERIC ADAMS & SAGE, continued on p.7
Brooklyn LGBTQ-Friendly Senior Residence Opens
Stonewall House has 145 apartments for individuals 62 and older
BY MATT TRACY
A much-anticipated LGBTQ-friendly
affordable housing residence for seniors
offi cially opened its doors in
Fort Greene on December 17 following
a ribbon-cutting ceremony featuring Advocacy
& Services for LGBT Elders (SAGE), city
offi cials, residents of the building, and others.
The building at 112 St. Edwards Street,
which was initially labeled as Ingersoll Senior
Residences but has since been branded as
Stonewall House, is 17 stories and boasts 145
apartments, making it the largest queer-friendly
senior housing development in the nation. It
is also the fi rst such building in the state.
The building, which occupies land on which
NYCHA’s Ingersoll Houses also stand, is across
Myrtle Avenue from Fort Greene Park.
Stonewall House will be home to residents
over the age of 62 whose income is 60 percent or
less than the area median income. There are 54
studios and 91 one-bedroom apartments, and
25 percent of the units are for formerly homeless
KAMILA HARRIS
SAGE CEO Michael Adams (center, in red tie) leads the cutting of
a rainbow ribbon to signal the opening of Stonewall House, a new
LGBTQ-friendly residential building in Fort Greene.
seniors. SAGE, which completed the project
in collaboration with developer BFC Partners,
will also have its own community center within
the building.
“It’s no exaggeration to say that LGBT elders
in New York City have been working for 50 years
for a place they can truly call home — since they
stood up and said ‘No more’ back at Stonewall
in 1969,” SAGE’s CEO, Michael Adams, said in
a written statement. “Thankfully, they’ve now
found that home at Stonewall House, and we at
SAGE could not be more thrilled.”
Others on hand for the ribbon-cutting ceremony
included Eric L. Adams, the Brooklyn
borough president, Matthew McMorrow, a
senior aide to Mayor Bill de Blasio, and John
Blasco, an out gay district leader in Manhattan
who serves as Speaker Corey Johnson’s LGBTQ
liaison.
Diedra Nottingham, a resident of the building,
described Stonewall Houses as a “dream
come true.”
“I am so excited to move into this building and
be part of a community that is LGBT-friendly,”
she said. “I was born and bred in Brooklyn and
coming back to the area is like coming home.”
SAGE’s other local LGBTQ-friendly affordable
housing residence, Crotona Senior Residences,
is nearing completion in the Bronx.
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