➤ SENIOR HOUSING, from p.16
protections, the best state of the 10
producing discrimination in more
than a quarter of all tests.
This past spring’s application
window for Ingersoll proved its appeal.
For 145 units — 84 one-bedrooms
for couples and 61 studios
for single people — only 2,000 applications
online applications were
going to be accepted. Within three
hours, 1,600 had already been
fi led. A successful applicant for the
145 slots would have to have fi led
within the fi rst eight minutes.
In providing LGBTQ-friendly
housing, SAGE is mindful that in
any 16-story building with both
LGBTQ and non-LGBTQ residents
even ordinary confl icts between
neighbors could take an unfortunate
turn involving hostile antigay
or anti-trans sentiments being
voiced. But Adams noted the
self-selection involved in non-LGBTQ
people applying to live in an
LGBTQ-friendly building. He also
emphasized that a SAGE staff of
at least fi ve will be on hand in the
building and that the group has
reached out to similar facilities in
other cities to discuss successful
confl ict mediation strategies. An
important part of the new residents’
orientation, he said, would
focus on forging a “group” spirit
among the tenants.
SAGE will have little time to rest
on its laurels once Ingersoll opens,
with the 84-unit Crotona Senior
Residences, of which SAGE is a part
owner, opening up in the Bronx in
February or March of next year.
There, a seven-story building with
55 studios and 29 one-bedroom
apartments, will house the winners
of a tenant lottery. Thirty percent
of the units there are reserved
for homeless elders. That building
will host the city’s biggest SAGE
Center, at 9,800-square feet.
SAGE is sharing the expertise
it has developed in steering these
projects to completion with at least
a dozen communities around the
country, eight of which are planning
similar LGBTQ-friendly residential
construction. The group
has developed a primer for LGBTQ
senior housing providers that includes
case studies of many of the
projects built to date.
Adams said SAGE is also looking
at the concept of home-sharing,
where unattached seniors live
together in a supportive, multibedroom
group setting.
But SAGE is well aware that the
community will not build its way
out of the shortfall in hospitable
options for LGBTQ elders. Many
seniors will age in place, which requires
that culturally competent
social services for them are available
in their neighborhoods.
And SAGE is also working to engage
mainstream housing sector
players in learning how to employ
best practices in making their developments
open and inviting to
seniors from the LGBTQ community.
On October 29, SAGE in collaboration
with Citi Community
Development hosted a day-long
symposium on LGBTQ elder housing,
a series of forums and discussions
that brought together
LGBTQ-friendly housing providers
and other community advocates
with leaders in the mainstream
housing sector. The day explored
needs faced by the LGBTQ senior
community, models for creating
friendly and affi rming housing opportunities,
and government policy
efforts aimed at producing better
results.
The day proved a busy one for
SAGE in Washington. As the symposium
took place, Adams was also
on a panel of experts — that included
Human Rights Campaign president
Alphonso David and National
Center for Transgender Equality
policy director Harper Jean Tobin,
as well, among others — before the
House Financial Services Subcommittee
on Oversight and Investigations
for a hearing on housing and
lending discrimination against the
LGBTQ community.
The current administration in
Washington, of course, is a brick
wall right now for SAGE like so
many other LGBTQ and progressive
organizations. The October 29
symposium and House hearing,
however, provided SAGE opportunities
to continue both to push
its engagement with the broader
housing sector and to address
its public policy agenda with the
Democratic House, against the day
when a more amenable attitude
prevails in the White House and in
the Senate.
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Like everyone else,
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GayCityNews.com | November 21 - November 27, 2019 17
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