Stonewall House Is NYC’s First Ever LGBTQ+-Friendly Center For Seniors

Stonewall House will offer shelter for individuals over 62 years of age who earn 60 percent or less of the area’s median income.

Stonewall House, the first-ever LGBTQ+-welcoming senior housing center in New York City, officially opened near Fort Greene Park in Brooklyn today, with the first wave of residents expected for move-in before Christmas.

The construction has been overseen by the developers of Stonewall House, BFC Partners, and SAGE, the world’s largest organization for improving senior LGBTQ+ lives, reports The Daily Beast.

“In 2019, in this 50th anniversary year of the Stonewall uprising, we couldn’t think of a better name for the first building of this kind,” CEO of SAGE Michael Adams told The Daily Beast. “People will be able to live their lives freely and openly in this building. We see our elders as heroes and want them to be treated as such when living in their own homes. That’s what we want to accomplish with this building.”

Stonewall House will offer shelter for individuals over 62 years of age who earn 60 percent or less of the area’s median income. While there’s a strong focus on making the LGBTQ+ community welcome, Stonewall House will be open to everyone; the expected resident makeup is split 50-50.

As reported by The Daily Beast, these kinds of LGBTQ+ senior living communities already exist in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Minneapolis. Stonewall House will have 54 studios and 91 one-bedroom apartments, with an expected 25 percent of those inhabited by formerly homeless tenants. A second SAGE-supported LGBTQ+-friendly senior community is expected to be open in the Bronx in March or April as well.

SAGE will also be operating the SAGE Center Brooklyn out of Stonewall House. At 7,000 square feet, the community center will be on the building’s ground floor and will be open in mid-January.

Stonewall House was developed under the Senior Affordable Rental Apartments (SARA) Program of New York City. It received financial support from the New York City Department of Housing Prevention and Development, the New York City Housing Development Corporation, and Wells Fargo.


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