Source: CBC News, NBC News via WBIR TV, Scripps News Service
A retirement condo for gay seniors proposed for the East Vancouver neighborhood of Mount Pleasant is still just a proposal, but has already attracted more than 30 people have plunked down a $1,000 deposit since it was first advertised two weeks ago, according to the U.S. developer.

The plan is for a condo development featuring living units, a communal dining room, a fitness centre, a lounge and cabaret.

Dean Malone, the president of Plum Living Properties, said the proposal for Vancouver will fill a community need. His company has already completed a similar project in New Mexico and has others underway in San Francisco and Palm Springs.

"Gays and lesbians, especially in the [baby] boomer age … are interested as they age to be with people who at least have come common interests … and this type of community is something that they're looking for," said Malone.

Joan Ford and her partner, who hope to eventually buy into the development, see it as an investment in their future well-being, since, like many gays and lesbians, they regard health care as one area where they still face discrimination.

"I don't want to have to face going back into the closet because there's someone looking after me who's homophobic," said Ford.

The apparent popularity of the Vancouver development is a sign of what some expect will become a booming market for specialized housing catering to gay seniors.

In California, one of the first assisted living centers for gay seniors is open and actively recruiting clients with alternative lifestyles.

On a secluded hilltop in the Sacramento County community of Fair Oaks, Tisa Cadway turned her sprawling ranch home into a stylish retreat. Only the intercom in the antiques-appointed bedrooms hints at the extra care offered.

The owners here say it's the first center in California catering to lesbian and gay seniors. But it is open to any older person needing help with daily chores- even straight clients like the center's first client, 87-year old Wells Bain who is blind in one eye, but sees himself as a very tolerant person.

"I was like a kid at 65. I learned more about the human nature since I was 65 than I did before," said Bain.

The inspiration behind Camellia Assisted Living is Cadway's 60-year-old mother, a lesbian.

Ruth Cadway, who can chase after her year-old grandson in the house, said she's lived openly and comfortably. But she and her friends feel the need for what her daughter is doing. "It's nice to have a loving, warm place without prejudice," she said.

Ruth said this is a place where she and her partner could one day end up.

"A lot of lesbians when I was raising kids didn't have kids. And now they do. So the ones that are older that didn't have children back then will be looking for some place loving to be," Ruth Caway said.

The six-bedroom Camellia Assisted Living facility feels more like a bed and breakfast than it does a senior center, but the owners here have a business model that they say is designed to tap into the growing number of older gays and lesbians needing assistance.

Around the country, at least a dozen gay-oriented retirement communities have opened or are on the drawing board, offering affordable urban living in Los Angeles and Boston or sprawling, market-rate desert resorts. Some, like the planned "openhouse" project in San Francisco, eventually will offer services for those who no longer can care for themselves.

By one researcher's count, an estimated 1.3 million of California adults are gay, lesbian or bisexual, though more than half of those are bisexual. Nationally, 4 percent of adults identify themselves as gay or lesbian.

Groundbreaking legislation paved the way for integrated living after the 1969 Stonewall Inn protests against police harassment in New York City. But sexual minorities seem eager for more retirement and nursing-care options catering to them, researchers say.

"The headline is that nobody wants to go back into the closet when they get old," said Douglas Kimmel, a Maine psychologist who has written on lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual aging.

Full article: Gay and lesbian seniors home proposed for Vancouver | CBC News
New assisted living center meets needs of gay seniors | WBIR (NBC)
Gays look toward sanctuaries in retirement | Scripps News