By Prof Andrew King

Tonic Housing recently launched the UK’s first LGBT+ affirming(1) retirement community. Called Tonic@Bankhouse, this is a major milestone for LGBT+ people in the UK, for reasons I’ll discuss in this blog. However, one thing that surprised me at the time of the announcement was that some people questioned whether such a scheme was necessary. The inference behind this seemed to be that since LGBT+ rights have improved significantly over the past twenty years, with the advent of equality legislation, that this must inevitably mean a brighter, happier and inclusive later life! The idea that LGBT+ people approach later life with concerns about their housing must surely be consigned to the past? Well, I’m afraid research I and others have conducted over the past five years suggests that this is not the case and that the UK, like other countries, really needs what I call a ‘rainbow mosaic’ future in relation to housing for older LGBT+ people.

It’s all got better?

Research(2) we’ve conducted about LGBT+ people’s experiences, preferences and concerns about housing, both now and as they move towards later life, questions the notion that ‘it’s all got better’. We found, amongst other things, that although many LGBT+ people over the age of fifty feel they live in a safe area and are comfortable in their homes, they have considerable concerns about who comes into their home. For example, when asked about different groups of people who may enter their home, over 50% of survey respondents indicated they were comfortable with neighbours coming into their home, whilst just over 11% were uncomfortable. But when asked the same question in relation to domiciliary (home) care workers, who may become more important as they get older, whilst 40% were comfortable, nearly 20% were uncomfortable. In focus group comments, participants said they felt that the safe space of their home, would become increasingly ‘under surveillance’ concerning their sexual orientation or gender identity from strangers as they got older. Trans participants in our study were particularly concerned that transphobia, which they frequently encountered outside of their home, could gradually invade their homes too.

Additionally, there is a widespread misconception that LGBT+ people have extended networks of support, so called ‘families of choice’, which they can rely on as they age, avoiding more formal (and possibly discriminatory) service providers. Yet again, and without wishing to indicate that all older LGBT+ are isolated and lonely, a more complex picture emerges, and one which certainly has implications for both housing, care and support in the future. Families of choice may be great for emotional support, but the greater the care needs, the more tenuous those informal networks may become. Yet we know that it is precisely formal care services that elicit the highest degrees of concern – viewed as a potential source of discrimination, either previously experienced or envisaged.(3) Trust in service providers’ willingness to commit to inclusive practice is, and will remain, a key issue.

Related to the above is the issue of community and geography. Not all older LGBT+ are well-connected to wider LGBT+ community networks, either geographically or socially. In our research, we found that 20% of survey respondents didn’t feel part of a wider LGBT+ community at all; again, focus groups shed light on why – lack of transport, increasing frailty, and even concerns about inclusivity in LGBT+ spaces for older people were all important. However, when people are very much connected, having to move home later in life can disrupt that. In the Building Safe Choices 2020 study of older LGBT+ people living in London, on which I was a consultant, 75% wanted housing options in London to remain connected to vibrant LGBT+ communities, organisations and support networks. This doesn’t mean that those who are living in more suburban or rural areas do not have access to important networks, but that when service providers are thinking about supporting older people in these communities, they need to remember that not all older people are cisgender or heterosexual.

Creating Housing Choices

So what housing choices do LGBT+ people want as they get older? Perhaps unsurprisingly this is something that many LGBT+ people do not really consider until they reach transitional or critical moments in their lives. We found that although 58% of our survey respondents had concerns about their housing as they got older, yet 72% had not made any plans. In Building Safe Choices 2020, 92% of survey respondents said they wanted more LGBT+ supportive housing options, as well as more information about housing, care and support.

However, diversity and difference are significant factors too. In our research, whilst retirement housing or housing with care for anyone were the least popular options, LGBT+ specific housing, whilst very popular, didn’t come without caveats. Some people expressed a desire for housing that was gender specific; trans people were concerned about transphobia even in LGBT+ specific housing environments, and intersections around class and race mean that LGBT+ people from diverse backgrounds fear that LGBT+ housing could be monocultural. Overall, there was recognition that even if LGBT+ affirming housing does develop significantly, mainstream providers need to work hard to make all housing, care and support services LGBT+ inclusive – for instance, by signing up to an equality scheme such as those provided by organisations like Opening Doors London, Stonewall Housing, LGBT Foundation or HouseProud.

A rainbow mosaic future?

The suggestion that differences are important brings me to the final point and purpose of this blog. What is needed, starting now and moving into the future, is not just housing that reflects the diversity of LGBT+ communities, but housing and support services that recognise that diversity, choice and issues of marginalisation and trust form a complex mosaic of differences within LGBT+ communities. There is no ‘one size fits all’ solution, just like there isn’t for heterosexual/cisgender people. This intersectionality actually presents a real opportunity – to policy makers, to housing developers and providers and to those providing care and support in people’s homes – to make LGBT+ affirmative and inclusion options available, always in consultation with LGBT+ people themselves (‘nothing about us, without us’) and with an understanding that, like all older people, LGBT+ people must have a range of options open to them. Imagine the rainbow flag as a mosaic and we might just be getting somewhere. So, to return to the issue that I opened with in this blog – it certainly is necessary to have LGBT+ affirmative housing for older people as an option amongst other choices, and aside from being vital for older LGBT+ people themselves, this presents providers, charities and other third-sector organisations as well as developers with future opportunities and possibilities if they recognise this.

Notes

Prof Andrew King will be discussing these issues further in ILC’s virtual pre-conference Future of Ageing workshop: Housing for all: Why is inclusion and diversity in housing so important? from 12.45pm – 2.00pm on Tuesday, 29 November.

For more information and tickets, visit ILC’s conference page.

References

(1) By LGBT+ affirming Tonic Housing means that their “approach to services and support will not just be “LGBT+ -friendly” but genuinely affirming of the lives, histories, needs and desires of LGBT+ people. The term does not imply exclusion of those who do not identify as LGBT+, but actively values those who respect and celebrate LGBT+ people” https://www.tonichousing.org.uk/living-at-tonicbankhouse

(2) King, A. and Stoneman, P. (2017), “Understanding SAFE Housing – putting older LGBT* people’s concerns, preferences and experiences of housing in England in a sociological context”, Housing, Care and Support, Vol. 20 No. 3, pp. 89-99. https://doi.org/10.1108/HCS-04-2017-0010

(3) Lottmann R and King A. (2020) “Who can I turn to? Social networks and the housing, care and support preferences of older lesbian and gay people in the UK”. Sexualities OnlineFirst https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1363460720944588