Place of Pride construction builds hope for future

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This article was published 13/10/2023 (744 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Mel Byer came out as gay in 2010, at age 60, becoming part of Canada’s first generation of openly LGBTTQ+ seniors aging into care.

Today, he’s waiting for the country’s first housing complex exclusively for older queer and transgender people to open its doors in Winnipeg, fearful discrimination at standard senior homes could force some back into the closet.

“I fully started living my authentic life when I was in my 50s and 60s, so having to go back into the closet and having to hide is not really a prospect that I feel good about,” Byer, 73, said Friday.

“I’ve done it twice, why do I need to do it again? Things have not always been easy for me, and I know lots of others feel the same way. We’d like to live our twilight years in relative peace.”

Shovels hit the ground last fall at Rainbow Resource Centre’s Place of Pride housing complex, a $20-million project that will offer 21 rent-geared-to-income units at 545 Broadway.

The centre will also include a community centre, cultural space, support rooms and communal kitchen. It is set to open its doors next year.

The need for affordable senior-centred housing for queer and transgender Manitobans became clear, Rainbow Resource Centre said, when it surveyed older LGBTTQ+ adults in 2018.

It found, of those who said they felt uncomfortable with the prospect of accessing residential services in the future, over half had concerns tied to being part of the LGBTTQ+ community.

“Anecdotally, we hear that this is something that the community is asking for,” said executive director Noreen Mian.

“This is the first generation that fought for equality in the 1970s and ‘80s, and they’re still facing discrimination at this stage of life. So it’s our responsibility to take care of them.”

Statistics Canada data from 2020 show LGBTTQ+ Canadians are more likely to be low income and at greater risk of losing access to secure housing.

Byer said other LGBTTQ+ adults his age are already dealing with discrimination in supportive housing.

He lives in a downtown senior’s complex where there are other queer people, but said he finds tenants who are not cisgender or heterosexual will keep a low profile. Byer said he has heard of tenants in other senior homes being avoided or unfairly judged for being LGBTTQ+.

Mian noted the new campus is coming at a time where the climate around LGBTTQ+ topics has changed in Manitoba.

Last month, hundreds of protesters and counter-protesters clashed at the Manitoba legislature in a rally organized by a national group against LGBTTQ+ issues education in public schools.

Place of Pride will be larger and more visible than Rainbow Resource Centre’s former Osborne Village location. Mian said it will make it the first LGBTTQ+ organization in Canada to own housing property.

“It feels like a coming out of sorts, if I can use that metaphor. We’re here and we’re intentionally taking up space and we are part of the the broader West Broadway community… But it’s also just a very clear statement that we will continue to stand up to the hate that we’re facing,” she said.

For Byer, it’s an opportunity to live out his sunset years around people who understand what he has been through. After decades of struggling to fully come out, a little bit of peace will go a long way for him and other future Place of Pride residents, he said.

“In my opinion, Manitoba is one of the better provinces, I think, in some ways, because we have made some steps forward,” Byer said. “But queer seniors in particular, most of us have had a hard time growing up, or coming out, or both. And I’m sure that some of them are getting tired.”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca