Expanding Beyond the Walls of Our Cities: Openhouse 2nd Annual LGBTQ+ Elder Housing Services Symposium
For 25 years, Openhouse has created a unique impact on the social and emotional wellbeing of LGBTQ+ older adults’ lives through programs and services that stem from the fact that they were developed by, for, and with LGBTQ+ older adults. The success of this work was the subject of a five-year study by the California Department of Public Health. The annual housing symposium allows us to highlight our community reflections, models, and best practices around our housing services by bringing together community leaders and academics from across the country to engage together. In 2021, Openhouse received a Folio Award for Best Online Event.
Ephraim Getahun he/him
(Eh-frame Gay-tah-hoon)
In order to dig deeper into the symposium,
I spoke with Ephraim Getahun, the host of the symposium.He is the Director of Strategic Partnerships and Training at Openhouse LGBTQ+ Senior Center, entered his first non-clinical role after being presented with the opportunity to turn aging services inside out. Why was the symposium created?
Sage, with funding from the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, approached us to create this annual housing symposium after recognizing that Openhouse specifically has an expertise past the brick-and-mortar housing development. We recognize people need more than the bare minimum. Of course, you need an apartment, you need somewhere safe to be and to live, but the thriving aspect of living doesn't happen just by giving someone a set of keys. It's this model that Openhouse has really created where we have our housing, but then you can come downstairs to the community center, engage in support groups, engage in social groups, and foster community and connection. Then, you have all the services that our Support Services team offers like case management. “We recognize people need more than the bare minimum. Of course, you need an apartment, you need somewhere safe to be and to live but the
thriving aspect of living doesn't happen just by giving someone a set of keys.”
Additionally, with the implementing of our adult day program in partnership with On Lok’s Pace program, we’ve created this continuum of care. Sage recognized that what we have is a very unique approach and so our best practice is what's really trying to be highlighted in this housing symposium and the primary audience is supposed to be housing developers. We’re here to inform them not only about this model but understand cultural humility and how to engage communities they may not be familiar with to actually build community that works for them because community looks different for different people. Could you explain what the parameters were for the event?
So the parameters that we were to highlighting our best practices to housing developers, and we just went so far past I think what was expected. Last year, we had two unique panels over two days. One panel on one day focused on the folks that are working closest to the community. We had grassroots community leaders here in San Francisco speak and kind of demystify this formal academic approach on how to serve these people. The majority of the answers were, “We just roll up our sleeves and get the work done and get dirty and do it.”
So, really highlighting that and then linking the community members who are directly impacted by those organizations and having them illustrate their stories for the audience was really impactful and powerful. The other panel brings in the academic lens because it is still really important. We still incorporate it for the trends and the future forecasting while also understanding that there are blind spots with academia and highlighting what are the practices to mitigate the making invisible of specific identities. It is really powerful and it helps housing developers understand where research is going because that data directly turns into money for specific people. This year, we’re moving away from the coastal cities this time because we're just always the centerpiece of the conversation. The grant language centers the focuses of housing developers, which is San Francisco and New York City and while I obviously appreciate the funding, the grant, everything, it is still really valuable to dig deeper into rural communities and the ways that they have to navigate gaps and being underserved and underfunded and under everything. At the end of the day, so many of our community members have lived in these very communities and are living here now and so it only benefits us to have a deeper understanding of people that we've constantly overlooked. There are LGBTQ older adults everywhere and we value every LGBTQ elder and we want every LGBTQ elder in the states to be able to thrive in a ways that this model is supporting our community.
Ephraim with his siblings.
Photo courtesy of Ephraim.
What part of your background and did you pull on or did you draw upon most to pull this symposium together?
I think my nursing background because it’s embedded into everything I think and do. I would also say being Ethiopian and being a first generation American. I think I have a different view about what aging looks like and what community looks like around an aging person. It's the combination of the nursing and of my cultural background. It’s so funny to me sometimes because we're formalizing something that's just naturally ingrained in many cultures all around the world and what's happening even here in Openhouse. Also, specifically my own work in hospice.What about your work in hospice was specifically influential?
It taught me that America doesn't know how to handle the dying. I think that at the end of the day, aging is an indication of where we're going and you can die well, and it's a bizarre thing to think about, but dying well is a community effort. Ultimately, what we're trying to do is to honor the lives of older adults that happen to be LGBTQ but also ensuring that they are dignified all the way through their aging process, including death.
Photo from Openhouse’s 2022 Juneteenth event.
What about Openhouse really helped you bring this into reality?
I think our deep mission around ensuring our older adults don't end up institutionalized. It's not avoidable in every instance, but our work helps ensure that these people don't end up in nursing homes because people are closeting themselves. We recognize that having this continuum of care that’s built within the community is the ideal for our for our elders, and why can't they have the best?What were some of the outcomes that you didn't expect from this symposium?
I think people weren't expecting, as silly as it sounds, the stories from the community members. People were not prepared for how impactful those were going to be. I think we did a really good job of making sure specific people were represented. So I think for a lot of the audience, especially housing developers and other folks that may not even be steeped in our culture and in our community had never really heard directly from someone who happens to be intersex and trans and black. Their unique experiences, the intersection of that experience and where Openhouse comes in with our impact, I just think that that full circle moment was what was most impactful about that. It proves that this model is working and that there's no reason that this can’t be replicated all over the country.
Photo of Pennsylvania countryside.
Photo courtesy of Ephraim.
What are you the most excited about getting to do it again?
I have much to learn. I am from a rural part of Pennsylvania. It's strange to claim that now having lived in urban settings for the majority of my adult life, but I do have a connection to rural America. It's a complicated relationship, but I just deeply care about it. I think it's motivated by a deep sadness to think about the isolation that occurs in a city like this where it's so resource rich, where there's so many opportunities to connect and if people are already still experiencing significant isolation- despair, what does that mean for people that are in the rural South or other communities that may not have access to something like Openhouse? It’s more learning because everything about Openhouse’s approach is supposed to be under the framework of cultural humility. So while the goal is to replicate this model, we can't assume that this is going to work the same way everywhere. It’s about coming humbly and learning directly from for those communities how this can be adapted with the end goal that no LGBTQ elder will feel disconnected from community no matter where they are.What did it mean to you? What was the significance of winning The Folio Award?
I was very surprised. I don't think I expected that. It was very new and it felt very hectic. I just didn't expect it to get any recognition. I could not have imagined that that would have happened, so I feel very proud. I often find that conversations on these platforms or at aging conferences all over the country, there’s a level of redundancy and a level of showmanship about what's being done and that's great, but the best practices don't seem to be getting any better. The impact doesn't seem to be changing. So I felt like it was growing stagnant so that it's clear that this was very fresh and new for a lot of the audience. This year, the housing symposium will be a free virtual 2-day event from Tuesday, October 18th to Wednesday, October 19th from 11:00am-2:00pm PT. Join Openhouse and SAGE virtually as we engage with the rural LGBTQ+ elder community to better understand their needs in housing development.To register for the event, click here!
Theresa Arocena
she/they/siya
Theresa Arocena (teh-reh-sah ah-ro-seh-na) is a Filipino folk practitioner, a guinea pig mom and a 2020 Magna Cum Laude graduate of Dominican University of California with a BA in Communications and Media Studies and minors in English & Graphic Design. She currently serves as Marketing and Development Associate at Openhouse.