Older adults who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender often age alone.
Prejudice may have meant fewer work opportunities over their lifetime, resulting in meager, if any, savings.
Finding affordable and welcoming senior housing is a challenge.
“It’s a double-whammy.”
The long waitlist has since closed.
Studio and one-bedroom apartments have sweeping city views, some of Wrigley Field.
In 2016, 63 percent of the residents in Town Hall Apartments were below the poverty line.
One request was that the property manager be sensitive to transgender residents.
Others sought ample indoor and outdoor common space to foster a sense of community.
All of those wishes were granted.
The building also has a fitness and computer area.
Sixty-five percent are male, 32 percent female and 3 percent are transgender.
Twenty percent of Town Hall residents are HIV-positive and 41 percent report a physical disability.
Former nurse Carla Harrigan pays just $374 a month for her studio apartment with floor-to-ceiling windows.
Married briefly, Harrigan previously lived in Iowa.
“It was a very small town.
I didn’t feel comfortable coming out.
I had a son and nobody questioned me,” she recalls.
“Here, there’s a sense of camaraderie.
Resident Glenn Charlton, a former social worker, loves feeling socially engaged.
“I lost many friends to AIDS,” says Charlton.
“Town Hall has increased my connectedness to the LGBT community, extending my circle of friends.”
It’s our hope that Town Hall will serve as a model for other projects around the country.”
A coffee shop leases retail space at the front of the building.
There was no private funding.
Its realization has been the source of great community pride."
The developers and LGBT community leaders held regular meetings and sent updates via mailing lists.
(Under fair housing laws, the process was first come, first served.)
Nine out of 10 residents at the John C. Anderson Apartments identify as LGBT.
More than 300 applicants are on the waitlist.
“Here I get to be me openly and unapologetically.”
The average age for the Triangle residents (minimum age 62) is 75.
Most of the units are one-bedroom.
The eight two-bedroom units are available for income-qualifying tenants with caregivers, couples or other family members.
Thirty-five units are set aside for people who have HIV/AIDS, are homeless or at risk of being homeless.
When the building opened, 58 percent of its residents were LGBT in 2016 the number was 78 percent.
In New York City, the national nonprofit SAGE is spearheading the construction of two LGBT projects.
With 145 units, theIngersoll Senior Residencesin Brooklyn will be the largest LGBT-welcoming elder-housing venture in the country.
Learn howSAGECare"cultural competency" training is helping older adults who are LGBT.
Sally Abrahmswrites about caregiving, baby boomers, housing, retirement and aging-in-place topics.
