Amid a housing crisis, LGBTQ+ seniors reconnect to community

In 2013, Elizabeth Coffey Williams found herself in the Philadelphia area, back on the East Coast after a divorce and unexpected move from the Midwest.

“I lost almost everything I had,” Williams, 78, said.

That included her home. Locally, Williams was staying with family in Delaware County but was among the nearly one in five seniors nationwide who lack stable housing — the fastest-growing segment of the country’s homeless population.

It’s a crisis getting attention in Pennsylvania. Gov. Josh Shapiro recently launched the Pennsylvania Housing Action Plan to address housing challenges statewide, with a focus on underserved communities like older adults. Yet, most traditional senior housing support efforts aren’t designed around the needs of one particularly at-risk community: LGBTQ+ older adults.

That reality prompted the creation of John C. Anderson Apartments (JCAA), which opened its doors in the heart of Philadelphia’s Gayborhood in 2014. Today, the award-winning building offers 62 LGBTQ-friendly housing units for older adults, with monthly rent ranging from $600 to $900 — far below the area average — and a waiting list that highlights the demand.

Yet, for many residents, JCAA provides much more than a home — it offers a connection to opportunity, visibility and, most importantly, community.

“The building is honestly just a physical structure,” Williams said, “but it’s the sense of community within that building that is so very special for the people who, without it, would be facing isolation and, very frequently, housing and food insecurity.”

A generational crisis

According to recent research from the Williams Institute at UCLA, about 20% of LGBTQ+ older adults in America live below the poverty line, 5 percentage points higher than straight and cisgender people. At the same time, about a quarter live alone, compared to 15% of non-LGBTQ+ Americans. Nearly a third of this population is confronting anxiety, and almost as many are dealing with depression — but about one in six struggle to access mental health support, a rate nearly double that of their straight and cisgender counterparts.

Disparities are particularly pronounced among LGBTQ+ people of color, who are more likely than white LGBTQ+ people to report food insecurity, trouble meeting household expenses, and renting a home rather than owning.

Overall, LGBTQ+ people are significantly less likely to own a home: About half do, compared to 70% of straight, cisgender Americans.

The disadvantages LGBTQ+ seniors are facing stem, first and foremost, from “stigma and discrimination” many have encountered throughout their lives, said Dr. Ilan Meyer, the Williams Distinguished Senior Scholar of Public Policy at the Williams Institute and professor emeritus of Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia University. Family rejection, even decades ago, and barriers to stable relationships have meant LGBTQ+ people are less likely to be partnered and, especially for men, to have children.

They “are therefore less likely to have support from family of origin or offspring, which are the strongest source of support for older adults in the general population,” Meyer said.

At the same time, systemic homophobia and transphobia often sidelined them from the careers that would provide long-term financial stability, like through 401(k)s and pensions, said Mark Segal, publisher of the Philadelphia Gay News (PGN) and president of the Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld Fund, a key backer of the JCAA.

“Family and finances — those are important for all seniors, but our senior population is put into a position where they often don’t have those two pillars,” Segal said.

While LGBTQ+ older adults can access housing support through mainstream services, such resources are often not culturally competent. For instance, Segal cites obstacles JCAA residents previously faced — such as a woman who wasn’t permitted to have her same-sex partner spend the night in her apartment, and a religiously affiliated program where staff tried to “pray the gay away” in a resident’s home.

This generation of LGBTQ+ elders is unique — they came of age during a time when they were likely ostracized for their identity, but are now aging in a society whose shift toward LGBTQ+ acceptance they helped drive. That has meant they know the sting of exclusion and are largely unwilling to go back in the closet, yet are navigating mainstream resources often not attuned to their experiences.

“Previous generations were more likely to hide their sexual and gender identities and, in some ways, by necessity, accept to not be recognized,” Meyer said. “Facilities and agencies that provide care and housing for older adults do not seem to be prepared to provide a safe and accepting environment to LGBTQ seniors.”

Apart from often not being designed for inclusion, many senior affordable housing programs are community-driven — by religious groups or demographically organized communities — and, as such, they are usually situated in areas of the city relevant to those respective communities.

“Being removed from the Gayborhood, from something they created?” Segal questions. “That’s horrible.”

Community coming to life

When the JCAA opened its doors, residents wasted no time getting involved in the community. They joined the neighborhood civic association and town watches, and started volunteering at and taking advantage of the resources offered by LGBTQ+ organizations located in the Gayborhood, particularly the William Way LGBT Community Center.

“These residents became integral in the neighborhood,” Segal said.

Williams is a prime example. She volunteered extensively at William Way — giving tours of the facility and organizing dances for older adults — and brought that spirit back to JCAA, where she helped launch social and community activities and organize the creation of an award-winning community garden on site. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she helped distribute food and resources to neighbors in the building.

“I engaged in literally everything I could,” she said. “And it was because I had this connection with the people in this building, with the people from William Way, with the community — I was among chosen family, people who understood me and I understood them.”

Williams, a trans woman, said the sense of gratitude for that opportunity compelled her to stay active in fostering community within and outside the building, ultimately leading to a healthier lifestyle.

Community-driven resources like JCAA, Meyer said, can provide a “safe, accepting and enriching environment” for LGBTQ+ seniors, creating connections that help aging adults stay engaged and enriched.

Zach Wilcha, CEO of Philadelphia-area LGBTQ+ business advocacy organization Independence Business Alliance, said these connections need to be intentionally fostered, as so many LGBTQ+ elders have created chosen family within the community.

“Places like John C. Anderson Apartments,” Wilcha said, “are a way to not only create a structure of found family for folks and the support they need, but it also keeps them involved in their community.”

A neighborhood in flux

Apart from being anchored in the Gayborhood, John C. Anderson is also in one of the city’s busiest commercial corridors — giving residents walking access to shopping, dining and entertainment across price points.

“Cities are a treasure chest of economic opportunity,” Wilcha said. Comfortable, dense housing just steps from hundreds of retailers and restaurants — many of them gay-owned — benefits not just the residents, but the entire neighborhood.

“Having so many businesses right there that they can get to on foot, is an incredible economic opportunity for small business owners,” he said. “It’s made the neighborhood much more lively.”

The potential for the building and its residents to drive commercial successes in the area was a cornerstone of its original plans, Segal said. JCAA was zoned for mixed-use, with a portion of the bottom floor carved out for retail space, originally a coffee shop and today a pharmacy, both of which helped drive street traffic along 13th Street while boosting the small business community.

The building itself, Segal said, has contributed to the ongoing revitalization of the Washington Square West neighborhood. JCAA was built in place of a former parking garage, and as it’s come to life over the last decade-plus, a number of nearby vacant buildings have been transformed and housing prices in the neighborhood have shot up, he said.

Now, a handful of upscale condo buildings are adjacent to JCAA. Even though the rent is a fraction of those, the building was designed — with its etched glass and award-winning courtyard — to project luxury, which has become a significant point of pride for residents, Segal said.

“I was literally gobsmacked at the possibility of moving somewhere so perfectly located and just so beautiful,” Williams said.

The stability that projects like JCAA have afforded residents doesn’t necessarily end with each of them.

Harvard researchers, through nonpartisan, nonprofit research arm Opportunity Insights, found an outsized impact of growing up in a “thriving community” on young people’s future economic mobility. This is a salient reality for LGBTQ+ older adults who do have children or grandchildren, some of whom have lived or spent considerable time at JCAA.

“Community-level changes,” researchers write, “in one generation propagate to the next and can thereby generate rapid changes in economic mobility.”

No ‘age limit’ on community

When it comes to the future of LGBTQ-friendly senior affordable housing in Philadelphia, JCAA may eventually not be the only offering on the block. At PGN’s 50th anniversary gala earlier this year, Segal announced a new initiative to build similar units at the future site of the redeveloped William Way LGBT Community Center. Though in its infancy, the project — which has the support of the mayor and the governor — would provide another key path toward mobility for LGBTQ+ older adults, Segal said.

Expanded opportunities, Williams adds, can drive more conversation, connections and, again, community. All are critical for any aging population, but particularly LGBTQ+ elders.

“These are people who were on the front lines of gay liberation, of women’s liberation, of the fight for civil rights — and now they find themselves in the position where they can frequently feel invisible, just no longer seen or heard,” Williams said. Opportunities like those provided by JCAA, she adds, can make an “immeasurable difference” in letting older adults reclaim their voice.

“I wish there would be more opportunities for elders in general,” she said. “We still have the motivation to contribute, to remain vital — to remain relevant.”

Making that a reality will be a community effort, Wilcha emphasized — an idea LGBTQ+ people can embrace.

“Community, for us, has always been the bedrock,” he said. “And places like John C. Anderson can make certain that there’s not an age limit on what community means.”

This article was first published by Philadelphia Gay News. It is part of a national initiative exploring how geography, policy, and local conditions influence access to opportunity. Find more stories at economicopportunitylab.com.