The 1990s have seen an explosion of alternative facilities providing housing and services for older people. Until then, alternatives were primarily composed of care facilities-nursing homes and intermediate care facilities-subsidized apartments, and a few apartment buildings. Beginning in the late 1990s, health care providers began to experience a new level of demand in the form of healthier seniors wanting housing that was more compatible with their needs.

Communal housing opens up new alternatives for LGBTQ/SGL elders to take control of their lives to live as independently as possible, as long as possible eliminating social isolation. Communal housing sets older adults up for success and helps them achieve their full potential in the last 20-30 years of life. LGBTQ/SGL Communal housing living arrangements support individual’s well-being physically, socially, and emotionally, and offers aging adults a way to live among people with whom they share a common bond of age and experience—an entirely new way to house themselves with dignity, independence, safety, mutual concern, and fun.