First Residents Move Into The Residences at Equality Park
Affordable Housing Community in Wilton Manors, FL
Photo credit: Behar Font & Partners, P.A.
The new 48-unit development represents Florida’s first affordable housing project with supportive services for LGBTQ+ seniors.
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he first residents now have moved into The Residences at Equality Park. South Florida is witnessing the incredible realization of a multiyear process of community assessment and strategic planning coming to fruition. This residential community will provide permanent affordable housing and supportive services for senior adults living with disabling conditions, such as physical illnesses or disabilities due to complications from diseases including HIV/AIDS, with a special focus on members of the LGBTQ+ community. This means one of South Florida’s most overlooked populations (aging members of the LGBTQ+ community) now will have a new affordable housing option in Broward County. The Pride Center at Equality Park (one of the nation’s largest nonprofit LGBTQ+ community centers) teamed up with Miami-based Carrfour Supportive Housing (Florida’s largest nonprofit affordable housing developer) to develop The Residences at Equality Park. Located in the City of Wilton Manors at 2040 North Dixie Highway on The Pride Center’s Equality Park campus, The Residences represents Florida’s very first affordable housing community with customized support services for LGBTQ+ seniors. Groundbreaking on this exciting project took place in
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the summer of 2019, and construction progressed quickly over the following year. As development neared completion, The Pride Center and Carrfour Supportive Housing hosted a virtual lottery drawing in July of 2020 with Broward County Commissioner Nan Rich and Wilton Manors Vice Mayor Tom Green to select applicants from the more than 1,500 applications received from individuals eager to live at The Residences at Equality Park. “Throughout construction, there wasn’t a week that went by when I didn’t receive multiple phone calls from community members wanting to know how they could become a resident,” said Robert Boo, CEO of The Pride Center. “The Pride Center started this journey eight years ago. The Residences at Equality Park is the culmination of an intense, exciting journey where we’re responding to direct, community-requested, prioritized need. We have the opportunity to help meet this great need of affordable housing for our Active Agers. Our work will decrease isolation, promote aging in place, and increase the overall quality of life for LGBTQ+ older adults in South Florida. We have many reasons to celebrate.” Nearly half of LGBTQ+ seniors in the United States live with a disabling condition, according to the Institute for Multigenerational Health. According to both SAGE USA
