 |
 |
Developer Tony Salazar told an Atlanta public forum the gay community must come together if it wants a senior living facility in the city. (Photo courtesy McCormack Baron Salazar)
|
|
|
| | |
|
| |
| |
|
|
| | |
HOME > NEWS > LOCAL
By: MATT SCHAFER
COMMENTS |
| 
Joe O’Brien, 63, wants to know where he and his partner can go if the inevitable frailties of old age force them from their Lake Claire home.
“My partner and I have been together 33 years, and we recently realized we’re not in our 20s,” O’Brien told a group exploring housing for Atlanta’s aging gay population on April 15 at the Helene S. Mills Senior Center.
“When we get to the point that we don’t want to mow the lawn, and do all those things, we want to move into a place where there is support, where if I get to the place where I’m not there to help [his partner] there is a community in place to take care of us,” O’Brien said.
As they enjoy retirement, O’Brien and his partner look forward to the next stage of life, and like many gay people, O’Brien is unsure of who will be there to take care of them. At the public forum April 15, representatives from development firm McCormack Baron Salazar met with a loosely organized group interested in exploring options for gay elder housing in Atlanta. The company built and manages Triangle Square in Los Angeles, a rent-controlled complex for gay seniors.
“Step one is you have to organize yourselves. I can’t do that for you,” said Tony Salazar, president of McCormack Baron Salazar’s west and southeast operations. “Until you decide what you need as a community, I can’t go forward. I can’t tell you what you need. Nor would we go about telling you where to place such a building.”
Earlier in the decade, Salazar began working with a group that eventually organized itself into the non-profit Gay Lesbian Elder Housing, which helped build the first affordable housing development for gay seniors.
Located near the intersection of Hollywood and Vine, the 104-unit, $21 million development offers independent living to gay seniors for rents between $500 and $600, well less than half their market rates. The building includes social services, and is designed to allow seniors to “age in place.” The gay senior housing facility had its grand opening March 22, 2007, after six years of development and construction.
The developers paid for Triangle Square with a combination of federal, state and private funds. To get the ball rolling, gay Los Angeles residents raised $1.5 million in six months toward the total $21 million cost.
Melany Sattler of Lilburn, who works with senior citizens, believes a similar effort is needed in Atlanta.
“I think there are plenty of gay people who can buy into a development like this so that those without the means to take care of themselves can live somewhere that welcomes and accepts them,” Sattler said.
The meeting was attended by Doug Carl, deputy director of Fulton County Human Services, and Linda Ellis, executive director of the Atlanta Lesbian Health Initiative, along with roughly 20 members of the public.
“It’s not as if McCormack will be the loaf of bread that will feed our community. They have an idea that may be developed, and it may not,” Carl said.
Carl and Ellis are both members of GLBT Senior Advocacy of Georgia, an informal group that is meeting to address gay housing and other senior issues. The Atlanta Regional Commission has also worked on housing issues facing gay senior citizens.
“We are making it up as we go along. We don’t know yet if we need to create a free-standing organization or an amalgamation of existing organizations,” Ellis said.
Brian Williams, 47, of Decatur is getting to the point where he and his partner are contemplating retirement.
“My friends and I talk about our retirement and what are we going to do, and nobody’s retirement plans look like mine,” Williams said. “I want to wake up and see the skyline and host martini parties and be in town and just do it all until the day I die. That’s the retirement I want.”
O’Brien hopes that others in Atlanta will join the conversation.
“We are all gay and we are all looking for a place,” he said. “I don’t know about government funds, but I think if you build it they will come.”
|
