WHAT WE DO
Meeting Needs, Changing Lives
Housing, Services and Community Programs for Our LGBT Seniors
Founded ten years ago to develop ground-breaking programs for our LGBT seniors and those who support them, openhouse today delivers a range of housing, services and community programs that touch the lives of thousands of people each year.
Housing
Services
Community
Housing
openhouse is about to break ground on a new senior housing facility expressly welcoming to LGBT seniors at 55 Laguna, the site of the former UC Extension campus in San Francisco. We have joined with private developer AF Evans and the Mayor’s Office on Housing (MOH) to build the new facility, which, in addition to urgently-needed housing, will provide a permanent base of operations for openhouse and its full range of programs.
Due to the City’s willingness to partner with openhouse, one hundred percent of the new senior facility will be housing defined as affordable according to City standards and available to individuals who are unable to access similar market-rate facilities due to the expense.
The new building, which will have at least 88 units and perhaps more, will be part of a larger initiative by AF Evans, under an agreement with the University of California, to develop a new community of rental apartments on the site, publicly-accessible parks and gardens, and new retail and community services facilities.
While openhouse already delivers a range of services and community programs, it is its housing initiative that will enable the organization to create a safe and vibrant environment for LGBT seniors as they age.
The new facility at 55 Laguna also benefits from its proximity to the larger, diverse community envisioned for the site, the City’s LGBT Community Center on Market and, of course, the Castro District.
Our commitment to housing extends beyond this first facility and the openhouse master plan calls for the creation of at least two more housing facilities welcoming to LGBT seniors: (1) a market-rate facility and (2) a specialized facility designed to meet the needs of the poorest and neediest among us. Our housing program also includes housing stabilization services for those seniors who elect to age in their own homes for as long as possible.
Services
openhouse’s service-delivery work is focused on ensuring that the enormous network of aging services in San Francisco are delivered in a way that is inclusive and sensitive to our aging LGBT community. Surprisingly, in San Francisco with nearly 20% of its population LGBT people, openhouse found that its senior service agencies were not seeing LGBT seniors and if they were there the providers were not aware of them because the LGBT seniors were not revealing their sexual orientation and gender identity. Because this generation of LGBT seniors carry with them lifelong experiences of discrimination and marginalization as they get older and more vulnerable go very easily back into the closet.
Since 2004, openhouse has been teaching health and aging service providers how to better understand and serve LGBT seniors. In this period, openhouse has provided LGBT Cultural Competency Training to over 1,000 providers from more than 150 agencies. This has been key in making senior service and health care agencies more welcoming to LGBT seniors and serving their needs. openhouse is now a recognized leader throughout the State of California in providing LGBT Cultural Competency training and is called upon by agencies statewide to train service providers in the ways in which organizations can be more welcoming to gender and sexual minorities.
openhouse also provides technical assistance in a pilot project to three targeted Senior Centers in San Francisco to help them identify isolated LGBT seniors in the neighborhoods they serve and assist them with creating programs that integrate them into their Senior Centers.
For information about Cultural Competency Trainings, please contact Education and Outreach Coordinator, Michelle Alcedo at 415.296.8995, ext 5 or email: michelle@openhouse-sf.org.
Community
openhouse Community Programs are a fun and engaging for LGBT seniors to remain connected to their community as they grow older. Our growing program gives our seniors an increasing variety of activities to participate in such as:
- Events
- Forums
- Travel
- Lifelong Learning
- Arts & Entertainment
- … and much more!
For more information on our community programs, regularly visit our Website at www.openhouse-sf.org or sign up for our newsletter:
Our Advocates are people who seek to end discrimination and unfair treatment against our LGBT seniors. openhouse staff and volunteers are listening, speaking out, and forming dozens of key partnerships to change San Francisco’s long-term care health care system into one that is more responsive to the needs of LGBT individuals and families. These folks have agreed to attend hearings, mail letters, make phone calls and send emails to policy makers and elected officials on a whole range of issues important to our community. By signing up to be an openhouse Advocate, you agree to receive action emails requesting immediate follow-up around a range of issues at the local, state and federal levels. It’s a great way for you to lend your voice to our growing chorus of voices advocating to make positive change for our LGBT seniors.
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Gordon Smyth and Richard Williams |
