Construction to start on LGBT senior apartments
Robert Bettinger, left, and William E. Kelly took turns tossing dirt during the groundbreaking ceremony for a planned LGBT-affirming senior community they hope to live in when it's built next year. — Peggy Peattie
By Gary Warth
NORTH PARK —
Senior citizens who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender will have a place created for them in about two years with the opening of the four-story North Park Senior Apartments.
"There are loads of us in our own homes," said Robert Bettinger, an 87-year-old gay man. "There are loads of us waiting to be fully ourselves as we age. It's wonderful that we've come to this step."
North Park complex would be one of six in nation
Bettinger was one of several speakers Wednesday morning at a groundbreaking ceremony for the apartment building, which is expected to open in December 2017 on the northwest corner of Texas Street and Howard Avenue.
The building will have 76 rent-controlled units for qualified people 55 and older. While anyone who meets age and income requirements may apply, the apartments are being built with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in mind as San Diego's first LGBT-affirming senior development.
The national nonprofit developer Community HousingWorks is building the project, while the San Diego LGBT Community Center will provide services in the building for the seniors.
The idea for a senior LGBT project started about 10 years ago when Bettinger and other people formed a grassroots working group. The group created a study called "LGBT San Diego's Trailblazing Generation" that found that 23 percent of LGBT seniors earn less than $20,000 a year and 68 percent don't have family or younger friends they can count on for support or assistance.
Bettinger, who hopes to live in one of the apartments, said he has a friend who is disabled and wants to move out of the high-rise building for seniors where he now lives.
"He called to say, 'When can I get in that building?'" Bettinger said. "He said, 'I'm here, I'm so alone. I don't have any of my community around.'"
Such LGBT-affirming senior communities are rare. Others exist in Los Angeles, Chicaco, Philadelphia and Minneapolis and another is being built in San Francisco.
Dolores Jacobs, president and CEO of the San Diego LGBT Community Center, said the project grew from the vision of a handful of people who dreamed of a safe, affordable housing community dedicated to providing seniors with respect, dignity and services they deserve.
"What a concept," she said.
San Diego City Councilman Todd Gloria, whose district includes North Park, said the project was a way of recognizing the work of senior LGBT community members.
"This is a historic day, and this is a day when we pay back to those who made it possible for all of us to live openly and proudly," he said.
Gloria, who is gay, said he thinks of the trailblazers in the LGBT community every day when he drives into City Hall.
"No one made a buck off of gaining marriage equality, allowing us to serve in the military, and giving us the freedoms and equalities due to us as American citizens," he said.
As those trailblazers get older, Gloria said, they may feel like they have to hide their true selves because of their generation and because they don't have support around them, he said.
"Unfortunately, so many of them are forced back into the closet in their later years," Gloria said. "That ends here. No more of that. We must show our seniors the respect they deserve for the contributions they made."
Assemblywoman Toni Atkins, a former City Council member, said the apartment project was a way of thanking the generation who had worked for the rights she and others have today.
"When you become a senior and you still need housing security, you don't want to have to go back into the closet and not relish all that is so important about community, and that's what many of our seniors have told me they fear," Atkins said.
The $28 million project was funded through multiple public and private community partners. Funding included a $7 million loan from the San Diego Housing Commission.
Qualifying seniors age 55 and older must earn no more than 60 percent of the area median income. If they were available today, the apartments would rent for between $710 and $860 for a studio, between $760 and $915 for a one-bedroom and between $905 and $1,100 for a two-bedroom apartment.
Public meetings on the selection process for residents will be in September and October this year and in February and March in 2017. The selection process will open in May 2017.
gary.warth@sduniontribune.com
Gary Warth
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