The recent report issued by the San Francisco LGBT Aging Policy Task Force provides a framework for city leaders to ensure that the city's roughly 20,000 LGBT seniors live as independently as possible. Members of the Board of Supervisors and the mayor must follow through on key recommendations so our community's elders are less isolated and able to advocate for their well being.
This week, the Bay Area Reporter launches a monthlong series that will look at some of the key issues affecting LGBT seniors contained in the task force's 120-page report. Some of the report's 40 recommendations are easier to achieve with some clearly more difficult. We'd like to focus on one of the recommendations and an issue we've observed during our coverage of the task force over the last 18 months.
Housing
San Francisco is one of the most expensive cities in the country in which to live, and with the tech bubble bringing more jobs here, we don't see that changing anytime soon. Even during the worst years of the recession in 2008-2009, housing prices in San Francisco remained relatively stable, especially compared with other parts of the Bay Area. San Francisco didn't have the blocks of foreclosed homes, for example, that were seen elsewhere. For a time, it was a renter's market, with landlords offering perks just to fill the units. Those days, of course, are long gone and the rental market has reverted back to being in landlords' favor.
The task force has concluded that LGBT seniors "are especially vulnerable to eviction" and is calling on the city to increase eviction protections for them. We concur.
And in order to keep LGBT seniors in their homes, it is crucial that San Francisco leaders do everything possible to keep them in their rent-controlled units. The most serious threat to an LGBT senior in the city is the loss of their rent-controlled housing. When that happens, they often have nowhere to go. Many of their generation don't have families who can help them because they were kicked out when they identified as gay and/or did not have children of their own. (That latter point will probably be a game-changer in a decade or so, when the increasing number of grown children of LGBT parents can help care for them, much like children of straight parents.)
This means city leaders will have to make some difficult choices to prioritize resources for LGBT seniors like pushing at the limits of rent control to further protect seniors from evictions and establishing ongoing funding for emergency rent support (much like AIDS Emergency Fund provides grants to eligible clients to pay for expenses like rent), and defending against unlawful detainer lawsuits. Therefore, the city must prioritize the preservation of rent-controlled units over opportunities for first-time homebuyers or condo converters and do everything possible to keep LGBT seniors in those units. That will work against the interests of young, upwardly mobile people who want a piece of the American Dream through homeownership �" a tough choice �" but the focus right now needs to be on vulnerable LGBT seniors.
The fact is not enough housing is being built in San Francisco now. The 110 units of LGBT-friendly affordable housing that Openhouse is constructing at the 55 Laguna Street site is a mere drop in the bucket. When it's time to sign-up for the units, you can bet the waiting list will reach into the hundreds, perhaps thousands. And there's no guarantee that all the units will go to LGBT seniors �" Openhouse can't discriminate, hence the "LGBT-welcoming" tagline for the project.
Community
The purpose of Openhouse was always to help LGBT seniors, and it does a good job with its limited resources. But our community is way behind in terms of organizing and sticking together. The Asian community has On Lok, which provides senior services in San Francisco. But there is no Jewish Home for the Aged or an Aging Services Division of Catholic Charities for the LGBT community. The LGBT Community Center is focused on economic initiatives and queer youth, although it does partner with Openhouse for senior activities. Who will take care of us? And what will we actually do to take care of ourselves? Those are questions that younger members of the LGBT community need to start thinking about. We have a generation that needs help now �" LGBTs in their 70s and 80s. People in their 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s should care about this issue, but by and large they don't. It is time for individuals and organizations to come together to begin formulating a system that will be there for us when we need it. The community has a successful track record, one only has to look at the nonprofits that were created in the 1980s when the AIDS epidemic began ravaging the gay community, and community leaders and others need to explore beefing up agencies like Openhouse so that people are aware of them, or creating new ones that address unmet needs.
One of the reasons we're doing this series is that we're all getting older. The LGBT community has a well-known reputation for ageism among our own. We must temper our obsession with youth culture with an appreciation of the contributions of our seniors. If younger LGBTs who are fortunate enough to call San Francisco home want to stay here they need to plan for their golden years now so that they can continue to live independently.