SENIORS
LGBT-Friendly Senior Housing Slated for Long Island Fifty-unit Bay Shore complex first of its kind in tri-state area BY ANDY HUMM
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COURTESY: LONG ISLAND GLBT SERVICES NETWORK
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ifty units of affordable housing for LGBT and LGBT -friendly people age 55 and over are set to open in Bay Shore, Long Island in the spring of 2016 through a collaboration among government, developers, and the Long Island GLBT Services Network, which operates community centers in Woodbury in Nassau County, Bay Shore in Suffolk County, and Sag Harbor in the Hamptons. Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, a Democrat, announced enabling legislation for the development at a ceremony attended by 100 on October 7 in Bay Shore. “It was only a couple of years ago that Suffolk County was considered a county of intolerance,” he said, alluding to anti-immigrant attacks that made headlines, but “but we have changed the tide and today’s announcement only reinforces the commitment I made to ensure that this county embraces its diversity and serves as a welcoming place for all.” David Kilmnick, the GLBT Network’s CEO, who first began working on services for the com-
Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone at the podium during an October 7 ceremony announcing the launch of a LGBTfriendly senior housing development in Bay Shore, with Assemblymember Phil Ramos to the immediate left of the podium and the Long Island GLBT Services Network’s David Kilmnick next to Ramos.
munity 21 years ago through Long Island Gay and Lesbian Youth, told Gay City News, “If we can get GLBT senior development in suburban Long Island, it can be done anywhere. I don’t imagine this will be the last one we do.” Kilmnick said the project was first suggested to Bellone by Ethan Eldon, president of Sustainable Management, a development company, whose work in government included a commis-
sionership in Mayor Abe Beame’s administration in the mid-1970s. Eldon was a lifelong friend of the late gay journalist Doug Ireland, a regular contributor to Gay City News. “He just said it would be great to have LGBT senior housing,” Kilmnick said. “He’s not gay himself, but has seen gay people struggle. The county executive told him to contact me.” Kilmnick and Eldon got to work putting together the project, which also includes the collaboration of POKO Management and the non-profit Long Island Housing Partnership. “It’s a public-private partnership,” said Kilmnick, “with the county coming up with funds for the planning process. We’ll own 51 percent of the entire project without having to put a penny in.” A federal Department of Housing and Urban Development program will provide financing for the development, Kilmnick said. When completed the project will occupy three-quarters of an acre on Park Avenue, some of which is already owned by the GLBT Network. The complex will include studios, one-bedrooms, and a few two-bedroom apartments, with eighty percent dedicated for affordable housing with federal income restrictions and 20 percent rented out at market rate. Applications to live in the development are not limited to Suffolk County residents. According to Kilmnick, the Network “will pro-
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SENIORS, continued on p.11
October 16 - 29, 2014 | www.gaycitynews.nyc