Source: Oregonian
Years after Bill Stein came out to friends and colleagues, he moved near family in Portland and went back into hiding.

If a resident of his westside retirement home makes an anti-gay slur, Stein, 86, says nothing.

"I'm, by nature, chicken," the retired anthropology professor said. " If you don't say, 'I'm gay,' you pass. I'm pretty well closeted."

On Valentine's Day, Stein drove to the conservative side of Multnomah County to visit Rainbow Vista in Gresham, one of the first retirement homes in the nation marketed to gay seniors. After a lunch of spaghetti with heart-shaped garlic toast, he played cards and chatted with the owner, the manager and a gay couple who plan to move in this summer.

But the rest of the dining room was deserted, as were most apartments. Rainbow Vista, 10 months old, has just two tenants, both straight. They are holdovers from the era when the building was marketed to the mainstream as Autumn Park.

Nationwide, dozens of groups have tried to build retirement communities for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people. So far, only three have opened, said Gerard Koskovich, who tracks the subject for the Lesbian and Gay Aging Issues Network. Aging experts, entrepreneurs and nonprofits say the need is there, but the challenge is more complex than if-you-build-it-they-will-come: Raising money. Finding an affordable, attractive and gay-friendly locale. Motivating people who -- like all seniors -- might want or need anything from Pilates classes to nursing care.

So far, "there hasn't been the interest and demand I expected . . . I don't really care," said Rainbow Vista owner Henry Moshberger, 65, adding that he'll persist. "This is where I'm living. . . . Basically, I bought a retirement home for myself and all my friends."

The push for housing stems mostly from gay baby boomers. More open than previous generations, they don't expect to hide as they age. But in a 2006 poll, fewer than half had confidence that healthcare professionals would treat them with respect as they grew older.

In the past decade, communities have brought forward at least 40 ideas for gay senior housing, but many stalled in the planning. So far, an upscale project in Santa Fe that opened in 2006 has had difficulty filling. An affordable complex that opened in 2007 in Hollywood, Calif., has had more success.

Unlike those, Rainbow Vista didn't emerge from market surveys or social service work -- just the drive of a single entrepreneur. A Molalla native, Moshberger lived in California, where he bought and sold real estate.

To invest proceeds of a recent sale, Moshburger bought former Camlu Retirement Apartments without a clear idea of how he would use it.

Even with its bright views of Mount Hood, the building had sat vacant for several years before Moshberger spotted it on visits to his sister's Gresham condo.

Camlu's nursing license had expired, and Moshberger wasn't interested in entering such a highly regulated field. With his sister as manager, he decided to pitch the new Autumn Park as a building for active seniors.

It didn't work. By June of last year, Moshberger changed plans, establishing a nonprofit and rechristening the building Rainbow Vista with a new motto: "A Place of Our Own."

Moshberger knew about discrimination. Ten years ago, he left a senior mobile home park in California after someone saw him kissing a friend on his front porch. Formerly friendly neighbors froze him out as managers nitpicked his yard and patio.

Early on, Moshberger hoped for a partnership with Senior Housing and Retirement Enterprises, a Portland nonprofit that has worked for gay senior housing since 2001. The group's board toured Rainbow Vista and at one point voted to lease the building, but later backed away.

The problem?

Mostly "location, location, location," Daniel Torrence, co-chairman of the group's board, said.

To some board members, "our folks are isolated enough," Torrence said. "Do we want to isolate them even further by locating them in the suburbs," far from city services?

Instead, SHARE will focus on other goals, Torrence said, which include raising money for its own affordable gay senior complex, planned for Portland's River District.

Moshberger calls concerns about Gresham a Portland myth.

"Certainly people on the other side of the river have that feeling that this is the hinterlands," he said. "Just the name Gresham turns off people that aren't familiar with it."

The city is a quick car, bus or MAX ride to downtown Portland, and the suburban location keeps rents low, he said.

Full article: A safe, gay refuge for retirement - OregonLive.com

via: QPDX blog: Rainbow Vista Retirement Community