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Ground officially broken in Hyde Park for New England's first LGBTQ-oriented senior-citizen apartments

By adamg on Fri, 06/17/2022 - 9:15pm
Aileen Montour speaks in front of the middle school being turned into the Pryde

Aileen Montour speaks at Pryde dedication. See it larger.

Local, state and federal officials gathered at the closed William Barton Rogers School in Hyde Park today to dig the ceremonial first shovels of dirt for a project that will turn it into a 74-unit apartment building aimed at LGBTQ senior citizens - the first such project in New England.

When finished in 18 months, the rehab, by LGBTQ Senior Housing and Pennrose, which has offices in Boston and Philadelphia, will also include a community room in the former auditorium, an art gallery and even some classrooms for life-long learning programs. It will also house the new home of the group that honors the 54th Massachusetts regiment, which trained in Hyde Park.

Some 50 of the apartments in the Everett Street building will be rented to people making no more than 60% of the the Boston area-median income.

LGBTQ Senior Housing President Aileen Montour explained the need for a building that is LGBTQ-friendly:

LGBTQ seniors face higher rates of housing discrimination, lower incomes, higher unemployment, increased food insecurity, and deal with the legacy of trauma and social isolation, with fewer traditional supports. ... Our older adults especially appreciate the opportunity to live authentically and unapologetically in a supportive community - we feel seen, heard and cared about.

Neighborhoods: 
Hyde Park
Free tagging: 
LGBTQ Senior Housing
Everett Street


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Comments

By anon on Fri, 06/17/2022 - 9:30pm.

But how can you legally bar straight people from public housing?

By adamg on Sat, 06/18/2022 - 12:37pm.

Anybody over 62 can apply to live there (there are also income restrictions for most of the units). But the marketing and programming is aimed at creating an "LGBTQ-affirming" community.

By SwirlyGrrl on Sat, 06/18/2022 - 5:14pm.

If you don't like living with people different from you, you won't like it here.

By Friartuck on Sat, 06/18/2022 - 4:08pm.

That DL MSM's and tradies visit often...

eek, I suggested older people are still sexually active. That will be a rude awakening for some... apologies in advance

By SwirlyGrrl on Sat, 06/18/2022 - 5:15pm.

Viagra + menopause - anything resembling actual sex education = massive outbreak of STDs in elders.

By Friartuck on Sat, 06/18/2022 - 5:54pm.

I doubt the target audience for this housing complex will include men having sex with menopausal women, nor menopausal women interested in having sex with the men.

Sure, I'm discounting the bi and pan crowd, among others (and apologies for that, you are not invisible) but from an uneducated statistical perspective, it seems a bit far fetched.

That said, wrap them peckers gents and for everyone, let's have dental dam dispensers in the common rooms

By TiminSouthie on Fri, 06/17/2022 - 10:41pm.

The trailblazers broke so many barriers that enable us to experience things that they themselves weren’t able to. So many LGBT seniors are without any support structure - birth family or one they made themselves.

By mg on Fri, 06/17/2022 - 10:49pm.

I know one of my mom's greatest fears was that if she ended up in senior housing she'd have to go back in the closet. This is much needed.

By Matt Frank on Sat, 06/18/2022 - 7:16am.

I think this is amazing and I'm so happy they are doing what they are doing. I love the idea of a community center.

I would point out though that these aren't the first senior LGBTQ apartments in the area... Chelsea Jewish opened the center for living several years ago and had a whole floor dedicated to LGBTQ people through assistance from Barny Frank. The center for living is split into ten floors of units with each floor acting as ten apartments dedicated to a specialized need. Two floors were for ALS with special equipment, one floor for LGBTQ etc.

https://www.bostonherald.com/2007/07/11/have-a-gay-old-time-nursing-home...

By John Costello on Sat, 06/18/2022 - 9:14am.

There was a mostly market rate project with this near same specific aim on Miner Street (near Audubon Circle) about 10 - 12 years ago that fell flat on its face when they couldn't get the people to live there. That was more likely economics of the time and not demographics.