By CAROLINE SAVOIE
Dallas Voice Contributing Writer
CaroSavoWrites@gmail.com
When Robert Emery, 64, walks into senior housing communities on training days, he asks his audience a question: “Who knows or loves someone who is LGBT?”
Usually, a few timid hands come up around the room, he said. At the end of the 60-minute discussion, he asks the question again.
“Without fail, 100 percent of people raise their hands” that second time, Emery said. “The fact is, everyone knows someone who is LGBT, but they’re not used to talking about it until someone comes in and makes it okay.”
Emery, a founding board member of Coalition for Aging LGBT in Dallas, said that during the last decade, he’s noticed more and more seniors proclaiming their place in the community. He said the rising number of seniors coming out is inextricably linked to how supported and empowered they feel.
“[Openly LGBTQ+ seniors] have a great risk of being abused and neglected when it comes to housing,” Emery said. “And a majority of LGBT seniors reported abuse or neglect after being outed to staff. It’s unbelievably powerful to be supported by management.”
Emery said he advocates for the approximate 400,000 LGBTQ+ seniors in North Texas by providing cultural competencies training at retirement communities and LGBTQ residents.
Each year, the coalition vets senior living facilities to determine whether they can protect and respect LGBTQ+ residents.
“We don’t have the manpower to get to all of the communities in North Texas, but anyone can go anywhere and ask them the questions we lay out on our website,” he said.
This questionnaire measures what Emery calls “the LGBT-friendly housing metric,” and features questions like, “Does your senior housing community have a written process in place to handle residents making discriminatory comments?” And “Do any of your promotional materials contain images of LGBT individuals?”
Dallas city officials, LGBTQ+ advocates and developers report that in the last decade, the need for senior housing that affirms LGBTQ+ residents has become more apparent.
According to SAGE (Ser- vices & Advocacy for GLBT Elders,) a nonprofit whose mission is to improve the lives of the LGBTQ+ community, finding safe and affordable housing is one of the most significant concerns for members of this group. A report by the Equal Rights Center, a D.C.-based civil rights organization that focuses on discrimination in housing, employment, and public accommodations, 48 percent of older same-sex couples applying for housing were subjected to discrimination, putting elders at greater risk for chronic health problems, social isolation, poverty and premature mortality.
Jacob Fisher, a vice president at housing developer Pennrose, said the company aims to build more than 10,000 units of LGBTQ+-affirming senior housing across the country. He said Pennrose works with community-based non-prof- its to develop housing, and those organizations bring in staff for support services, educational programs and social activities.
Most recently, Fisher completed the John C. Anderson apartments, an LGBTQ+ affirming community in Philadelphia. He said there’s no check-box on the application asking which letter potential residents identify with, and fair housing laws dictate that properties can’t discriminate based on sexual orientation.
“Calling a property LGBTQ-affirming is a self-selecting mechanism,” Fisher said. “People are either going to live there because they identify with the community or they’re allies who are comfort- able in that community.”
Fisher said Pennrose is working on four more LGBTQ+-affirming housing developments in Boston, New Haven, New York and Denver.
Dallas isn’t far behind.
Courtesy of the Dallas Media Collaborative, a collaborative reporting project focused on solutions to the affordable housing crisis in Dallas. Dallas Documents is part of the Dallas Media Collaborative, launched by the Solutions Journalism Network with funding from the Knight Foundation. Find out more at dallasmediacollab.com.
