BOSTON — A Boston housing project that's billed as New England's first LGBTQ-friendly senior affordable housing project is breaking ground Friday.
The Pryde will convert the former William Barton Rogers Middle School in Boston's Hyde Park neighborhood into 74 units of mixed-income housing for seniors.
The project is being built by developer Pennrose and LGBTQ Senior Housing Inc., a Massachusetts nonprofit and is expected to welcome its first guests late next year.c
The organizations say on their website that there's a “high need” for LGBTQ-friendly housing because LGBTQ seniors are less likely to have children or a family network to care for them.
“So having a place to go that’s affordable and welcoming, where they can live their authentic lives, is critical for their safety and health and wellbeing,” Gretchen Van Ness, executive director of LGBTQ Senior Housing, told WBUR radio earlier this month.
She also said there's an estimated 65,000 LGBTQ seniors in the state and that the housing project will feature a 10,000-square-foot community center in the school's former gym.
Lt. Governor Karyn Polito is expected to be among the local and state leaders on hand for Friday afternoon's event.
