3rd Affordable Housing Community for LGBT Seniors Opens

LGBT elders are more likely to live alone and experience isolation and loneliness.  

"Why should people, who were the pioneers of the community, not live with dignity?  It's outrageous.  We have to take care of our own-nobody else is,"  said Mark Segal,  chairman of the fund that spearheaded the development.

Indeed!  This statement mirrors the sentiments of Senior Agenda for all seniors - not just for those who have historically been marginalized - but for all seniors because what society-at-large fails to acknowledge is that getting old in this country means being on the receiving end of discriminatory practices and attitudes.   It means residing in the outer margins.  Albeit, that marginalization is amplified when membership in multiple minority categories intersects.  Those seniors end up residing in the outer-outer margins. 

Anti-discrimination law prohibits gay-only housing, but communities can be identified as LGBT-friendly  through marketing and location.  When the leasing office in Philadelphia opened last fall, would-be tenants sat in a block-long line waiting to drop off applications.  The 56-unti complex follows Los Angeles and Minneapolis as locations with gay-friendly affordable housing for seniors.  Two more communities are under construction in Chicago and San Francisco.  (The Associated Press: Read complete story here. ).