Britain Set For First Gay Old People's Home

Plans are afoot for Britain’s first ever gay old people’s home, which is set to be built in either London or Brighton within the next three years.

Designed to accommodate up to 150 residents, the home will cater for a demographic that sometimes feels marginalised and uncomfortable in mainstream care homes.

There are currently over a million LGBT people in Britain aged 50-plus, and while there are already homes of this type in Germany, Sweden and the US, there is currently nothing like it in the UK.

Tonic Housing is on the hunt for a suitable site, and director James Greenshields told BuzzFeed News that it was thinking ahead to his own old age that brought the idea to life.

“If you don’t have your own children, and if you have fractured family relationships, which is a possibility, then you would not have the support networks that many older people count on,” he said.

“So I thought, ‘What would happen to me?’ And then, ‘Well, what is there in the UK?’ I was really taken aback that although there are organisations for older LGBT people, in terms of care homes there is nothing at all. It was a shock. The need and the demand is out there.”

Mr Greenshields added that the architecture would be “ambitious”, avoiding the “dismal and frumpy” feel of some old folk’s homes - with not a net curtain in sight.

Happily for older heteros, straight people will be welcome too, though the balance will always be at least 51-per-cent in favour of the LGBT demographic.

[Pic: Flikr/LesChatfield]