ABOUT US
Mission
To see New York City’s LGBTQ older adults in safe, welcoming housing they can afford, with access to health and mental health services that meet their unique needs. The benefits of our solutions are available to all allies who respect our community.
Challenge
New York City’s senior housing crisis is only just beginning, with the 65+ population projected to grow by 40% between 2010 and 2040.
Where will we live? LGBTQ older adults face additional extraordinary challenges: lack of family support networks; more pronounced health and mental health challenges; more widespread poverty; and fear of discrimination and abuse within the older adult housing and health sectors. The COVID-19 pandemic is poised to exacerbate evictions and foreclosures in unprecedented numbers.
Major Activities
Stonewall Community Development works on four tracks:
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We create housing opportunities. While we build our young organization to be a viable brick and mortar real estate development partner, we are also examining low capital expense, rapid placement housing strategies like home-sharing, and supported co-living.
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We realize innovation. Our Brain Trust Innovation Hub online platform is a laboratory where we convene cross-sector working groups with end-users to explore, document, and develop potential housing and service innovations that respond with agility to the accelerating housing crisis and the policy workarounds or changes that will be needed to implement those strategies.
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We provide direct assistance through our Housing Ambassador program to seniors to help them navigate the City’s affordable housing lotteries and ensure access to the benefits to which they are entitled.
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Our online platform Stonewall Village NYC® provides aging in place support, access to resources, educational opportunities, interactive classes and programming, and technical training and support that allow older adults to have meaningful participation in this virtual village and be part of the growing community movement for LGTBQ welcoming senior housing.
COVID-19 Update: COVID-19 has expanded and accelerated our work in rapid housing strategies as the scope of the coming housing crisis begins to become clearer. In New York City there are 14,900 pre-COVID evictions processed and eligible for warrants of eviction once the moratorium is lifted.
No one knows what will happen with mortgages. In May 2020, New York City had the second-highest loan delinquency (30 days +) rate at 12%. In July 2020, its delinquency rate for FHA-insured homes reached 27.2%. In August 2020, the share of mortgage loans that fell into delinquency nationally toppled anything
experienced since the Great Depression.
Stonewall Village NYC® also expanded, experiencing a 1000% increase, from 120 to over 1200 users once the COVID-19 lockdown began. Since March 18th and as of September 27th, we have hosted 458 meetings, events, and activities for seniors with 5,549 attendees.
To ensure that no one gets left behind and that all who desire can access these programs and enjoy the highest technical quality, we provide individualized assistance to all facilitators and senior constituents. In the same time period, we have provided an additional 256 technical assistance and training sessions with 817 attendees.