LGBTQ housing complexes for seniors being built in Brooklyn, Bronx
FORT GREENE, Brooklyn (WABC) -- Two LGBTQ complexes geared towards housing gay seniors are being built in the Bronx and Brooklyn.
SAGE, a national advocacy and services organization that's been looking out for LGBTQ elders since 1978, is entering the high-rise business for the first time.
There will be SAGE centers in each complex that offer workshops, meals, classes and most importantly a safe harbor for the LGBTQ community.
In Fort Greene, a brand new building is being created from a partnership with SAGE, NYCHA and the developer BFC.
The country's largest LGBTQ friendly senior housing building will have a 6,800 square-foot SAGE center on the ground floor and 145 units upstairs for low income seniors -- 37 of them homeless.
While applicants don't have to be LGBTQ to live there, SAGE did a big push to ensure that its 4,000 members knew this building was going up.
With 12,000 applications in and 2,000 on the waiting list, SAGE is helping seniors apply to the high demand housing complex.
Sixty-seven-year-old Guy Aiossa never thought he could afford a place in the very trendy Fort Greene with views of Manhattan. For him, an apartment there would be a dream.
"When I heard SAGE was building this accepting community with units and a center and great opportunities, I said 'Let me apply as soon as I can,'" Aiossa said. "I'm really interested in this."
SAGE is also partnering in another similar building in the Bronx that won't be ready until next year. But in Brooklyn, those accepted will move in this fall.
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