Region's LGBTQ group aims to build housing for LGBTQ seniors

Local LGBTQgroup, Spectrum, is in the early stages of developing a project that aims to build safe spaces for LGBTQ seniors in Kitchener-Waterloo.

In June, a CBCNews special report found that manyLGBTQseniorsworry they'll have to hide their sexual orientation when entering long-term care homes.

• 'We're going back into the closet': LGBTQ seniors wary of being 'out' in long-term care facilities
• Spectrum partnering with students to help LGBTQ seniors

"When people go into senior serving institutions of various kinds, they go back in the closet," said CaitGlasson, president of Spectrum and a member of the organization's Aging with Pride committee.

Part of the reason why, said Glasson, is because many people living in long-term care homes or retirement homes grew up in a time when LGBTQpeople were not as widely accepted as they are today.

"We've got these people who are reluctant to be out because the people they are living beside could be their abusers," Glasson said.

Gauging a need

Spectrum recently partnered withCommunity Justice Initiative, who will help look after theadministration side of the project.

In anticipation to this project, Glassonsaid Spectrum conducted a pilot project in 2017 where LGBTQpeople would visit with seniors to help reduce the stigma.

Glassonnoted that in all eight senior institutions they visited, not one person was out, but she iscertain there has to be ahandful of LGBTQ seniors present.

• Feeling at home: Staff trainers help LGBT seniors overcome fears in long-term care

"We're talking about homes that have 200 or 300 inhabitants.The odds that there's nobody gay or transis low," Glassonsaid.

Though it's still in the early stages, Glasson's long-term hope for the project is to create a home that operateslike Sunnyside in Kitchenerfor LGBTQseniors that is affordable.

"Even if we started out small...it would be one step toward allowing people to be who they are," Glasson said.