North Park Seniors delivers affordable housing and a supportive environment for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender seniors in San Diego, Calif.
The trailblazing 76-unit community is the first of its kind in the city and one of only a handful of LGBT-affirming affordable senior housing developments in the nation.
Many gay seniors have lost contact with their families, do not have children, and lack a support system, making North Park Seniors especially meaningful, says Anne B. Wilson, senior vice president of housing and real estate development at nonprofit Community HousingWorks (CHW).
A local study found that 23% of LGBT seniors earn less than $20,000 a year and 68% did not have a family or younger friends they could count on for assistance.
Seeing the need for a unique affordable housing development, CHW developed North Park Seniors in partnership with The San Diego LGBT Community Center, which is providing services to the residents.
The development is not exclusively for members of the LGBT community. All seniors earning no more than 50% and 60% of the area median income are eligible for an apartment. There are eight permanent supportive housing units for people who have been homeless.
The project also led to a change in city policy. It’s part of a larger development that includes 118 units being built by a market-rate developer on another lot. CHW successfully worked to get a density bonus transferred from the market-rate project to North Park Seniors, allowing for 21 more affordable units. Using North Park Seniors as a model, the city amended its laws to allow for up to a 50% increase in density under certain conditions.
Financing for the $27.1 million development includes about $11 million in low-income housing tax credit equity from U.S. Bancorp Community Development Corp.
“The development was fully leased before it opened,” Wilson says, noting that CHW limited the waiting list to 500 names but it could have had thousands, given the broad outreach and pent-up demand.
