Openhouse Offers a New Model of Aging in Community

With construction set to begin at 55 Laguna—a new LGBT-welcoming senior housing development in San Francisco—it is time to celebrate Openhouse, the small yet mighty organization that is making this much needed housing possible. As you’ll soon learn in the articles to follow, Openhouse offers a new model of aging in community.

Let’s face it. Nobody wants to think about aging, but we’re all getting older, and that’s obviously a good thing versus the alternative! We’ll all need help somewhere along the way, though. We want to live independently in our homes and communities. We want dependable networks and resources.

Community member Jeff Lewy puts it this way: “We haven’t been elders until now. Fifty years from now, organizations like Openhouse will be commonplace. But LGBT elder support is a new idea, and we have to figure out how to do it right.”

This is where Openhouse comes in. Certainly it includes projects like 55 Laguna, but Openhouse also offers valuable services, programs, awareness, engagement, visibility, cultural competency, independence and so much more. Whether you are a senior now, or are just contemplating what your future as a senior might hold, consider how Openhouse is there to help, and give thanks that such an organization
exists right here in San Francisco.

Dr. Marcy Adelman

“Let’s get real. The fact is if you live long enough you get old. And just like any other stage in life, you can choose to be deliberate and intentional about how you live it. The Openhouse expansion campaign offers a new model of aging in community that harnesses our personal and collective wisdom, resources and resiliency. An investment in Openhouse is an investment in ourselves and each other in meeting the inevitable challenges and vicissitudes of later life. I invite you to join this pioneering effort.”

Marcy Adelman, PhD, co-founded Openhouse and is a board member. She is a psychologist in private practice and a member of the San Francisco Department of Aging and Adult Services Advisory Committee.

 

Dear Friends,

Get out the hard hats and call in the construction crew—we’re ready to start building at 55 Laguna!

Later this month, look for scaffolding and construction signs on the corner of Laguna and Hermann as we begin the 15-month renovation of historic Richardson Hall with our developer partner, Mercy Housing California.

This renovation is the first phase of a two-building campus that includes LGBT-welcoming senior housing and a new home for Openhouse. With effective services and consumer-driven programs, we will welcome 1,500 community members in 2015—double the number of people we served just two years ago. Open to all of us no matter where we live in the city, our new home will help us continue to keep pace with growing demand.

By 2030, the number of LGBT older adults in San Francisco will hit 30,000. That’s a 25% increase. Largely without the kind of all-purpose support that children provide as their parents get older, we must get real. Let’s create what we need to live independently in our homes and communities for many years to come. We’ll all need help, to one degree or another. Openhouse will be there to help us through whatever challenges we face. Let’s make it happen.

Please contact me if you’d like to learn more about our new home and plans for the future.

All the best,

Seth Kilbourn, Executive Director

executivedirector@openhouse-sf.org

More articles about Openhouse here: http://sfbaytimes.com/category/news/special-section/