Lottery applications for the city’s first LGBTQ-friendly senior residential building — Ingersoll Senior Residences in Fort Greene, Brooklyn — will open on May 29 at 11 a.m.
The building at 112 Edwards Street near Myrtle Avenue, which is on pace to open in the fall, is a product of a partnership between Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE) and BFC Partners and will boast 145 units in a 17-story building, with a lounge, a reading and card playing room, laundry facilities, and roof decks lined with plants on several floors. The building will also house a 6,500-square-foot senior center providing social, health, and wellness services, arts and cultural activities, and technology training. That center will include a computer facility and library, an area for fitness classes, dining space, and a large kitchen that will be utilized for both cooking classes and catering.
Applicants must have a household member who is at least 62 years old and qualify under city guidelines for affordable housing. The residences will not be exclusive to LGBTQ people, but the project is designed to offer a safe environment for queer seniors, many of whom have suffered discrimination particularly as they look at other options for affordable elder housing.
Applicants who currently live in NYCHA or are on the waiting list for NYCHA or Section 8 housing will be prioritized, and 30 percent of the apartments are set aside for formerly homeless people.
SAGE CEO Michael Adams said the beginning of the application process for Ingersoll Senior Residences means “we’re one step closer to realizing a decades-long dream of providing welcoming and affordable housing for our LGBT trailblazers.”
“It couldn’t be more timely, as we mark the 50th anniversary of Stonewall,” Adams added in a May 28 written statement provided to Gay City News. “SAGE thanks Mayor Bill de Blasio, Council Speaker Corey Johnson, Council Majority Leader Laurie Cumbo, and Assemblymember Walter Mosley for all of their support for this important project. And huge thanks to our Ingersoll developer partner BFC Partners and Don Capoccia.”
The building is the first of two LGBTQ-inclusive senior residential developments in the city coming online that are spearheaded by SAGE. The other project, Crotona Senior Residences at 771 Crotona Park North in the Bronx, is scheduled to open up in 2020 and will have 82 units. Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr., and out gay Councilmember Ritchie Torres each allocated $600,000 toward that development, which is not yet accepting applications.
Applications to Ingersoll Residences are only available online and will be administered a first come, first served basis until 2,000 are submitted. To apply to the Brooklyn residence, visit sagenyc.org/nyc/housingnyc.
