LGBTQ seniors struggle with housing. Ferndale project offers solution

Finding safe and affordable housing is a challenge for LGBTQ people, particularly elderly people who can face difficulty in securing a permanent place to live. A planned senior home in Ferndale will house older adults who encounter those housing struggles because of their identities.

The Rev. Roland Stringfellow, who proposed the project, said he was inspired by a mixed-use affordable housing development in Detroit that opened in October as a haven for gay and lesbian at-risk youths.

“I have LGBT seniors within my congregation, and I was concerned about their particular stories and challenges around housing,” said Stringfellow, senior pastor of Metropolitan Community Church of Detroit. “There was clearly a need from those people who I currently serve.” Construction was projected to start this month.

Rents set for affordability

The Raymond E. Shepherd House will have 53 one- and two-bedroom affordable apartments in a supportive environment for seniors whose income is up to 60% of the area median, according to its developer.

Rents will range from $441 to $1,060 a month depending on income, with utilities included. The area median income for Ferndale is $79,181 a year, according to the 2021 U.S. Census.

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Additionally, the Ferndale Housing Commission will allocate eight of its public housing vouchers to Shepherd House. While there is a waiting list for vouchers for anyone who meets the low-income requirements, seniors and those with disabilities are given preference.

Housing for LGBTQ seniors is a new trend, with some of the first developments cropping up in the last couple of years in Boston, Seattle, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, and Sacramento, California.

LGBTQ seniors worry about mistreatment

Stringfellow’s peer and colleagueKathleen LaTosch said such housing has long been needed in southeastern Michigan.

As chief administrative officer of the Ferndale-based LGBTQ+ community center, Affirmations, she conducted listening sessions and focus groups with LGBTQ+ older adults in Michigan to get a sense of their needs.

At one all-day strategic planning session in 2007, about 100 people showed up to talk about the desires of the older LGBTQ+ community.

“And out of that, we learned that housing was really up at the top,” said LaTosch.

The attendees also told her about the concerns older LGBTQ adults have regarding mistreatment by care providers.

LaTosch formed with other organizations a volunteer-based collaborative to survey older LGBTQ+ adults on what they wanted in housing.

“Some structural elements, some safety elements … and making sure that it was affordable,” she said. “We talked about safe places to gather inside, outside, around that space.”

They also decided thatinclusive health care and case management services would be prerequisites for an LGBT-friendly senior home.

Stringfellow said he hopes that the Shepherd House will be a safe space for LGBTQ+ adults, especially older BIPOC ones, which is why he approached the nonprofit Full Circle Communities to develop the housing development.

The Chicago-based developers built the Ruth Ellis Clairmount Center in Detroit, which inspired Stringfellow’s proposal and search for land.

They eventually found a vacant site in Ferndale to build the Raymond E. Shepherd House.

“There’s going to have community space on the ground level and several units on the first level as well,” said Stringfellow. “And then three floors that will house these units.”

A welcoming environment

The apartments will also be barrier-free and adaptable to meet the physical needs of aging adults. The building will feature a library, community rooms for residents and on-site property management.

Full Circle Communities said it also will establish codes of conduct at the housing development to ensure a welcoming atmosphere, giving Full Circle the right to evict residents who aren’t respectful or welcoming of their neighbors.

The bottom line

The project will be built on 31,850 square feet of vacant land, and funded with about $13 million from the Michigan State Housing Development Authority and a $700,000 grant from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy.

Cristian Yugsi, project manager for Full Circle Communities, described the development as a partnership between a nonprofit developer and a state agency. The city of Ferndale granted the Shepherd House project 45 years of tax abatements.

Yugsi projects that three full-time staff will run the facility: a property manager, a service coordinator and a maintenance coordinator.

This article is part of a joint solutions journalism project on caregiving and mental wellness between the Southwest Michigan Journalism Collaborative and the New York and Michigan Solutions Journalism Collaborative, a partnership of news and community organizations dedicated to rigorous and compelling reporting about successful responses to social problems. The groups are supported by the Solutions Journalism Network. 

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: LGBTQ seniors struggle with housing. Ferndale project offers solution