Photo credit: Judy Kinney, GenPride
GenPride and Community Roots Housing is soon opening Pride Place, a community and housing project, first of its kind in the Pacific NW designed to be an affordable and affirming housing and community center for LGBTQIA+ elders. The project will provide 118 apartments, with a mix of studios and 1-bedroom units – as well as a community and health services center.
Photo credit: Aaron D Garcia, White Center Community Development Association
Every square-foot has been intentionally designed in serving their unique population. By centering belonging, safety, and accessibility, GenPride fosters a community living and dwelling space so that residents feel most at home. GenPride and Community Roots Housing aims to go over and beyond to meet their clients where they are at by providing:
- Shared community spaces for a variety of needs: open and connected gathering spaces, a quiet library corner, and an urban garden to name just a few.
- Safety: security points, restricted electronic entrances, and a keen awareness of their local, urban surrounding.
- Accessibility at more than just the minimum: mobility friendly doorways with wrist-friendly door-handles, floors painted different colors, and hand rails in every hallway.
With the support and funds from PHPDA’s Nimble Grant in 2020, GenPride facilitated community outreach and focus groups to identify health-related goals and services needed on-site by their target population. Their community engagement and feedback activities assisted GenPride in developing the many innovative features listed above at Pride Place today.
About GenPride: Generations Aging with Pride, a nonprofit organization, is offering important new opportunities to develop and test multi-generational solutions to the challenges facing LGBTQ midlife and older adults, building on the many strengths across the generations. Utilizing research findings from Caring and Aging with Pride and Aging with Pride.
Nimble Grants: Funding up to $30,000 can be used for short-term projects, infrastructure/ capacity development, planning, technology improvement, training, or policy and advocacy work.
The next Nimble Grant application is expected to be due by mid-February 2024.
