Senior Living Programs and Policies

LGBTQ older adults are a large and growing segment of the older adult population. As the baby boomer generation ages into senior living programs like senior centers, long-term care facilities, retirement communities, and nursing homes, they will be looking for LGBTQ-affirming services and environments. A number of LGBTQ-specific facilities are now open or in development, but given their size relative to the number of LGBTQ older adults, mainstream senior living programs and facilities are facing the need to enact policies to protect their LGBTQ constituents. Several such policies are outlined next.

Publicly funded or nonprofit LGBTQ senior housing has opened or is being developed in Chicago; Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles; Minneapolis; Philadelphia; San Francisco; and Vancouver; several more cities have privately unfunded facilities. There are a ...