|
Linda Carlson – New ED: Openhouse
for LGBT Seniors
by Ken Ludden for the San
Francisco Spectrum
LGBT people have led the way toward nearly every social advancement
in the history of mankind, and now the subject of LGBT seniors is
about to get a camp facelift. The plan for a mixed-income residential
village for LGBT seniors and friends took a giant step forward with
the installation of Linda Carlson as the new Executive Director
of openhouse. Her record of strong leadership, creative funding
solutions and savvy management gives the organization a shot in
the arm like nothing else.
Carlson will be on board as ‘openhouse’ prepares to
obtain land and completes its preliminary planning for the proposed
village. Dr. Marcy Adelman, openhouse Board President and co-founder
recognizes Carlson’s long history of running and strengthening
similar organizations and says “she’s built a solid
record of credibility and accomplishment. We’re delighted
that she’s devoting her widely recognized leadership skills
to our vision.”
That vision has been widely reported in Spectrum from the beginning
of the organizations movement into reality. The idea that LGBT people
refuse to be relegated to rocking chairs and shuffle board has turned
into a trend-setting proposed village that will not only offer services
and residential living circumstances to the seniors, but will conversely
offer the general community of San Francisco a landmark new venue
of artistic expression, social gathering, educational opportunities
and a number of retail outlets. As with many other LGBT solutions
to social needs, this model is sure to sweep the nation and transform
the entire concept of senior living facilities.
To do this, Carlson has been tapped. She has successfully managed
nonprofits since the early 1980s in northern and southern California
and New Mexico. She served as Executive Director of Women’s
Recovery Association in San Mateo for ten years, which offers the
Bay Area’s largest residential mental health program for women,
mothers and their children and adolescent girls. She holds a degree
in Social Work and Public health and a Masters in Social Work. Her
track record speaks to how perfectly aligned her talents are to
the specific needs of the openhouse vision. She has raised money
for capital campaigns, has bought or remodeled more than a half-dozen
buildings and developed facilities for housing and support programs.
When any organization moves from planning stage to actualization
of their plans into a physical plant and actual public offerings,
it requires much more than mere collection of funds, for the mentality
of the expansion must be alive in the imaginations of all who work
on the project, as well as the impression in the general public
that the newly transformed idea is indeed a reality that is vibrant
and of value. Carlson has done this numerous times. “Linda
has led the expansion of small nonprofits into big successful ones,
and she has a record of getting things done,” said Dr. Adelman.
“She’s a can-do person and a true builder who works
hard at forging partnerships.”
With thirty years of activism the general public now more readily
accepts that some people are gay. But the elders of our community
grew up in a time when it was illegal to be gay, a diagnosable mental
illness and the epitome of moral corruptitude. Inspite of this,
the LGBT community has fought the battle for acceptance and won.
But such a battle leaves scars, not only because of earlier abuse,
but also current ones as younger members of the LGBT community cannot
relate to what the elders went through. Current freedoms are often
taken for granted by the young, while elderly LGBTs still struggle
with internalized homophobia coupled with invisibility in the youth-minded
current LGBT community. Carlson recognizes this and other factors
that require sensitivity on the part of the staff for such a LGBT
senior residential program. Consequently, she has already initiated
a new openhouse program to make home healthcare and other elder-service
providers more sensitive and responsive to the needs of LGBT seniors.
In partnership with existing providers of services, the program
trains workers to be understanding and supportive of clients who
are LGBT. Led by the most experienced trainer in the field, social
worker Nancy Flaxman, the initiative recruits volunteers to tell
service providers the concerns and fears they have experienced as
LGBT seniors. The trainings then suggest practical ways for service
providers to make LGBT clients feel at ease.
“This program will almost immediately improve the effectiveness
of support services available to aging LGBTs in San Francisco,”
Carlson said. “For example, if you are a senior and need healthcare
assistance in your home, this can help workers relieve your worries
about prejudice and discrimination.”
Pressing forward with the vision, ushering it into physical reality,
Carlson is overseeing plans for the nation’s first mixed-income
LGBT friendly senior housing, and will soon turn it from essential
studies and figures into acquisition of real property. “We’ve
finished much of our financial planning, so we know how to fund
this in a sustainable way,” Carlson said. “We have also
identified a terrific site in Hayes Valley, and we’re talking
to the city about its availability, and about other alternative
properties. We need a location that can accommodate 260 apartments
in a vibrant multicultural setting, enriched by a wide range of
services to support healthy aging.”
The preferred site, between Fell and Oak streets at the terminus
of what had been the Central Expressway, is near existing LGBT facilities
(the Community Center and New Leaf Outreach to Elders) and the Civic
Center with its wealth of offerings in arts and public services.
This dynamic new facility will provide housing for approximately
300 seniors, plus wellness and eldercare services to support more
than 2,000 others who remain in their current homes as they age.
Apartments will be available to all, but the village will have a
strong culture of welcoming people regardless of gender or sexual
orientation.
A public form is planned by openhouse within the next few months.
This will offer the chance to share preliminary plans with the community,
solicit feedback, and strengthen the grassroots movement for housing
that is supportive to LGBT people as they age.
As impressive as her credentials are, the more profound impact
comes from her understand and compassion. “Even inside the
LGBT community, people don’t realize just how much of a crisis
housing and services can be for our seniors,” Carlson said.
“Many of us who worked our whole lives cannot afford to stay
in San Francisco when we retire. And even the wealthiest LGBT seniors
are often at a loss to find assisted living or other supportive
housing where they can live without fear. Together we are changing
that.”
And Carlson really means the ‘we’ part of that quote.
Volunteers are welcomed at openhouse, as well as supporters—everyone
can help make this vision become reality. If you are interested
in joining forces with openhouse, you can can reach Linda Carlson
at 415-296-8995.
|
