Two LGBT Senior Housing Developments To Be Built in NYC

Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE), HELP USA and BFC Partners have announced the development of New York City's first senior housing with services designed specifically for the LGBT community. Ingersoll Senior Residences and Crotona Senior Residences will collectively provide nearly 230 units and bring comprehensive, LGBT culturally competent services to older adults at both sites.

This spring, New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) and NYC Housing and Preservation (HPD) announced the selection of BFC Partners and SAGE, to develop a 145-unit affordable senior housing development. Located in Ft. Greene, Brooklyn, Ingersoll Senior Residences will be the nation's largest LGBT-welcoming elder housing development in the nation.

Separately, the 82-unit Crotona Senior Residences, located in Crotona Park North, Bronx, will be developed as part of a collaboration between HPD, HELP USA, NY State Homes and Community Renewal and SAGE. The developments are one component of the National LGBT Elder Housing Initiative which SAGE launched in 2015 in response to evidence of widespread discrimination against LGBT older people in senior housing.

LGBT elder housing is a national issue, as clearly illustrated by President Barack Obama's statement in his Pride Month Proclamation: "LGBT individuals deserve to know their country stands beside them. That is why my Administration is striving to better understand the needs of LGBT adults and to provide affordable, welcoming, and supportive housing to aging LGBT Americans." These new developments address the need highlighted by President Obama by weaving together affordable housing and comprehensive on-site services in ways that enable older people to age in community.

"For too long, our LGBT elder pioneers in New York City have lacked access to housing where they are welcomed for who they are," said Michael Adams, Chief Executive Officer of SAGE. "Ingersoll and Crotona are a critically important step toward righting that wrong."

On-site SAGE Centers at both locations will be modeled after SAGE's highly successful Innovative Senior Centers located in Chelsea, Harlem, the Bronx, Staten Island (in partnership with the Pride Center of Staten Island), and Brooklyn (in partnership with GRIOT Circle). Residents and community members will have access to wide-ranging programming and social engagement opportunities.

Both developments will be financed under Mayor Bill de Blasio's Housing New York: A Five-Borough, 10-Year Housing Plan to create and preserve 200,000 units of affordable housing. The most comprehensive affordable housing plan in the City's history and largest municipal housing plan in the nation, its goal is to help address New York City's affordability crisis by housing more than half a million New Yorkers, ranging from those with very low incomes to the middle class -- all of whom face increased pressures due to ever-rising rents.

Ingersoll Senior Residences will be made possible through a partnership with the NYCHA, HPD, the New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC) and other development partners. The City announcedthe selection of the development plan for this building in May of this year. This new affordable senior housing will comply with fair housing regulations and be available to all seniors meeting income eligibility requirements, regardless of their sexual orientation, through a lottery process.

"We are honored and excited to be partnering with SAGE to deliver New York City's largest senior housing project designed to accommodate the LGBT Community. I commend NYCHA for their vision in recognizing the opportunity this project presents, and for their determination to keep New York City in the forefront of innovative housing models," said Don Capoccia of BFC Partners.

"The partnership between the City, BFC, and SAGE to expand affordable housing opportunities and services at Ingersoll is a powerful example of how we're creating more connected communities through NextGeneration NYCHA," said NYCHA Chair and CEO Shola Olatoye. "Once complete, the Ingersoll Senior Residences will give seniors an affordable place to call home. It will provide much-needed social services to the Fort Greene neighborhood and the LGBTQ community."

Crotona Senior Residences will be made possible through a partnership with HPD, New York State Homes and Community Renewal (HCR) and other development partners. Crotona Senior Residences will be financed in part by the New York State Homes and Community Renewal's Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program, Housing Trust Fund Corporation and the Community Investment Fund. Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. and New York City Councilmember Ritchie Torres also provided capital support for the development.

Ingersoll Senior Residences and Crotona Senior Residences build upon precedents of LGBT-inclusive senior housing that has been built in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Chicago and Minneapolis. All of these developments respond to needs that are well-documented by research. This includes a 2014 report by the Equal Rights Center, with support from SAGE, which found that 48 percent of LGBT older people applying for senior housing as part of a national test were subjected to discrimination. This high level of discrimination makes it extremely difficult for LGBT older people to find appropriate housing as they age.

"HELP USA is happy to be working with SAGE to fill the dire need for housing for LGBT seniors in New York City," said Tom Hameline, Ph.D. President & CEO HELP USA. "HELP's long history of service to New York City's most vulnerable populations, and SAGE's pioneering advocacy for LGBT elders across the country, make for an ideal partnership."