Putting in place the housing and services necessary to age with dignity and grace is a vital need for today's LGBT seniors and the wave of baby boomers to follow. It should be a priority for our community and our many allies, especially in San Francisco.
We are poised finally to move forward on creating LGBT-welcoming senior housing in this wonderful city we call home. We cannot and should not let this opportunity pass by. After years of community involvement and three years of delay following the economic meltdown, Openhouse is ready to design and build its first LGBT-welcoming senior community at 55 Laguna Street. Appropriately, this first community will be targeted at those most in need �" low-income seniors.
Openhouse plans to build 109 below-market-rate (BMR) apartments, which will all be rented to people 55 and over who are low-income. The building will also include on-site services and a senior community center. Residents and LGBT seniors across the city will have a central place to get the help they need to live independent and healthy lives. That is, if the 55 Laguna development goes forward.
The Openhouse housing is part of a larger multi-family rental development at 55 Laguna. The larger development must and should include low-income family housing. We all want and need more affordable housing for everyone in San Francisco. But how many low-income residents will ultimately live at 55 Laguna is entirely dependent on how many BMR units the Mayor's Office of Housing (MOH) can financially support. As many of these units as possible should be built, without putting low-income seniors at risk. No other developments dedicated to serving the seniors in our community exist in San Francisco. We have to start taking care of ourselves as we age. The solution being devised by all the stakeholders working together should be developed quickly and supported by the entire community, even if that solution is not perfect.
The Openhouse senior housing and the larger multi-family development are inextricably linked. Because of how the project was approved in 2008, one cannot proceed without the other. Putting one at risk puts the other at risk and killing the whole project is not in anyone's best interest. Hundreds of low-income seniors and families stand to benefit from the completion of the 55 Laguna development. It must proceed.
Openhouse will use city funds to leverage millions of dollars in corporate investments and federal housing funds to benefit a particularly vulnerable population. It is a very efficient use of local dollars and it's about time. Thousands of LGBT people come to San Francisco to find personal freedom and acceptance. Today more than 25,000 LGBT people over 55 live here. As older adults with increasing needs, the pioneers of this migration were (and continue to be) forced "back into the closet" in order to receive quality care and move into residential facilities. They are being forced to relocate and leave dear friends behind. Largely without children, and many without partners, LGBT seniors depend on Openhouse and will need 55 Laguna as the hub of a strong community network.
One LGBT senior living with HIV wrote to the Planning Commission that he was forced to leave San Francisco at age 62 because he could not find any affordable housing after being displaced from his rent-controlled apartment. "Had a program like the 55 Laguna project existed four years ago, I might not now be in this depressing, untenable situation," he wrote. A lesbian elder, now living in subsidized housing in the North Bay, wrote that she desperately misses her community of friends, contacts, and medical support. "Since I don't know how much longer I will be able to ... drive to San Francisco, I need the exact kind of housing that Openhouse will sponsor," she said.
For those LGBT seniors who stay in San Francisco, many are forced to move into single room occupancy hotels. A system in which LGBT seniors retreat to the closet, return to the shadows, and are no longer fully integrated into the larger social fabric of San Francisco is intolerable. Not here, not today, not ever.
The 55 Laguna development replaces a virtually abandoned site with a vibrant mixed-income, diverse community in the heart of Hayes Valley, less than a block from the LGBT Community Center. The development includes a community garden, a new park, and community space for youth, all of which will be open to the public.
A solution that will allow the Openhouse project to move forward and support multi-family BMR units will surely be the product of a good faith effort by all the stakeholders. We urge them to arrive at a middle ground quickly so that the project can move forward without forcing seniors and families who desperately need affordable housing to wait longer than they already have. The 55 Laguna project goes once again before the Planning Commission on August 4. Please urge the commission to move 55 Laguna forward without delay. We further urge the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association, the LGBT community, the affordable housing community, the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors to line up behind a plan that moves us forward.
Leaving LGBT seniors out in the cold, not to mention leaving an already dilapidated site to rot for another 10 years, is not an acceptable outcome. We have waited long enough.
Ray Rudolph is a 22-year resident of Hayes Valley and Openhouse volunteer. MJ Isabel moved to San Francisco from Chicago 16 years ago. She lives in a studio apartment in the Tenderloin with her Tibetan Terrier service dog, "URADiva." Isabel is a politically active community organizer, college student, and former social worker. She describes herself as a very determined African American lesbian.