Aging Well Housing Hacks/Collaborative Learning Session 3 (Pittsfield)

In 4 weekly Intergenerational Collaborative Learning Sessions come hear from local experts about some proven aging well hacks (strategies) & join other LGBTQ+ people in working together to learn how to create on-going aging well study & action groups on these 4 topics (click on the title links to learn more or register):

1) 5/9 Creating Healthy Habits for Eating, Exercise, Sleep, & Mindfulness

2) 5/16 Building Your Aging Well Team & Chosen Family

3) Aging Well Housing Hacks/Collaborative Learning Session 3 (Pittsfield): Learn about intergenerational home-sharing, making your home safe, affordable, & sustainable for aging, & building a housing vision team. Also review the housing statistics below that indicate the worsening LGBTQ housing crisis in the Berkshires, especially for elders on fixed incomes and younger LGBTQ adults who are just getting started in their work lives & housing.

PRESENTERS:

* Isaac Share is the Home & Community-Based Programs Supervisor at Elder Services of Berkshire County, Inc. He is responsible for supervising a wide array of programs including: Long-term Options Counseling, Caregiver Support, Information and Referrals, Volunteers, Community Health Workers, and other community-oriented initiatives. He knows a lot about how to build aging well teams.
* Bart Church, is the Interim Executive Director of Q-MoB, convener of the series of Berkshire Queer Creative Housing Solutions Forums, helped manage a queer-friendly intergenerational community in Portland for 14 years, and has been organizing queer community wellness non-profits and initiatives for more than 40 years, including Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League (SMYAL) in Washington, DC, Manifest Men's Wellness in Portland, OR, Integrated Healing, ACT UP, and Queer Nation in Washington, DC.

4) 5/30 Aging Well Financial Hacks Collaborative Learning Session #4: Managing Financial Risks & creating financial abundance even on a fixed income, including how to crack the health insurance quagmire.

5) 5/14 Queer Men's Aging Well Peer Support Group: queer men design an on-going peer support group to help one anothe gracefully negotiate the inevitable changes that come in: 1) Relationships, 2) Health, 3) Housing, 4) Financial Resources and Risks. 5) Spirituality, 6) Service/Work.

BERKSHIRE HOUSING STATS:

1. Rents have been rising rapidly, especially during and after COVID,and are at historic highs in the Berkshires.
2. Rental unit inventory has fallen dramatically since COVID and is at historic lows, meaning there is a lot of competition for very few rental units.
3. Inventory for single family homes for sale has dropped dramatically since and beyond COVID and and prices have skyrocketed.
4. Inventory for condos for sale has also dropped since COVID and remains at historic lows, and compared to other markets in Massachusetts the Berkshires have almost no condos to serve as starter homes or for seniors to move to when they can no longer afford to care for large houses. The prices of the few condos there are are at historic highs.
5. Since COVID the demographics of the Berkshires is changing rapidly, in that the population of people over 60 is growing fast, while the numbers of younger generations are dropping rapidly. Because of lack of high-paying jobs, skyrocketing housing prices, and lack of housing inventory, the younger generations of queer people are being forced to flee the region, as are seniors on fixed incomes.

ABOUT THE AGING WELL SERIES: This series is designed to connect you with LGBTQ people and experts/allies in your area who want to support one another in continuing to learn and teach what works to others in your LGBTQ circle who are committed to collaboratively figuring out how to age well. We will create on-going Aging Well Study & Action Groups that focus either on one of these 4 topics, or take a more wholistic approach and study and experiment with all 4 issues. The impotant thing is to find a group of LGBTQ people who live near you to gather regularly to study what works, experiment with what might work, and then support one another in sustaining those healthy habits and, most importantly, teaching what works to othe LGBTQ people who want to study & learn together. We ask each person in these groups to take turns being a student and a teacher, and a coach and a team player.

STARTLING DATA ON THE COMING LGBTQ+ AGING CRISIS: Here is some startling data from the largest study ever done on LGBTQ+ seniors that underscores the aging crisis many LGBTQ seniors are facing, and also shows how powerful the Boomers and Gen X have been in collaborating to fight AIDS and government inaction on AIDS and in building a powerful network of action and support that saved millions of lives. The coming health, social, & economic crisis LGBTQ seniors are facing is just the next in a long line of challenges the queer community has faced and overcome by coming together to learn and take action together:

• More than 3 million LGBTQ adults over age 50 live in the U.S. – and more than half of them feel isolated from others and 59 percent report feeling a lack of companionship. This population is set to grow to about 7 million by 2030 (6 years from now). The LGBTQ senior population in the Berkshires is growing even faster because of COVID migrations from the big cities.

• 7 out of 10 LGBT older adults live alone as compared to 3 out of 10 heterosexual older adults. The social isolation of living alone, compounded by the fears of allowing homecare, chore-service, and other lay and professional staff into one’s home create a significant barrier for care. LGBT older adults often feel they have no one to call in times of need.

• 9 out of 10 LGBT older adults have no children to help care for them as compared to 2 out of 10 heterosexual older adults. Furthermore, LGBT older adults have often been ostracized from an extended network of family members based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. LGBT older adults tend to form extended friend networks or “chosen families” that they rely on to help care for them at times of need. Unlike heterosexual family structures that are intergenerational, chosen families tend to be comprised of peers who are, as they age, facing the same care challenges.

• LGBT older adults are nearly 3 times as likely to live in poverty as heterosexual older adults, and to have lower lifetime incomes and retirement incomes.

HELP BUILD DIVERSITY: Data shows that the more diverse our aging well team is the more resilient and and creative it will be. In other words if you study and learn about aging well with LGBTQ people of all ages, races, backgrounds, education levels, skills, and expertise, you are much more likely to find solutions and then have the team to implement them. Please invite as diverse a group of LGBTQ friends and acquaintances as you can to join us in these sessions and in studying and practicing aging well in a collaborative learning group. The trap many of us fall into is all our friends are the same age as we are and they all have the same challenges, the same resources, and we complain about the same things -- and therefore are not nearly as creative & resilient as more diverse LGBTQ groups. Our ability to thrive depends on building intergenerational teams that learn and practice aging well together.

THE COMING LGBTQ YOUTH/YOUNG ADULT HEALTH CRISIS: This is particularly important because recent studies show that LGBTQ people in their teens & 20s are the least active and most chronically ill generation in modern history, so they need aging well help as much or more than their elders. Here are some frightening statistics about how queer youth are struggling with unprecedented levels of isolation and the physical and mental health challenges that come with it:

• In 2021, 69% of LGBQ+* youth reported feeling persistently sad and hopeless. For heterosexual youth, that figure was 35%, according to the CDC
• During the pandemic, LGBQ+ high school students were about 4 times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers, accordig to the CDC.
• 41% of LGBTQ young people seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year—and young people who are transgender, nonbinary, and/or people of color reported higher rates than their peers. These are the highest rates ever seen since surveying began, according to the Trevor Project.
• 67% of LGBTQ young people reported experiencing symptoms of anxiety, according to the Trevor Project
• 54% of LGBTQ young people reported experiencing symptoms of depression
• 60% of LGBTQ young people reported that they have felt discriminated against in the past year due to their sexual orientation or gender identity.
• Although the pandemic made these disparities worse, they have been persistent over time and many of them are worsening rapidly as a record number of anti-gay laws are proposed and passed across the country, and more and more LGBTQ young people and elders spend ever greater numbers of hours online and becoming more & more isolated, according to the Trevor Project.

CARPOOLING/RIDE-SHARE: If you need a ride or are open to carpooling, please indicate that when you are registering, & our ride coordinator will try to match you with people nearby who are interested in carpooling or offering rides. We encourage carpooling because it is a great way to make new friends, save money on gas, reduce your carbon footprint, and have a designated driver should you want to drink and not drive.

DONATE OR BECOME A MONTHLY SUSTAINING MEMBER: Please donate $5-$20 to help assure Q-MoB can continue to offer more than 25 activities & multiple resources & services to rural queer men all over the region. If you attend 2 or more Q-MoB events/month, please consider becoming a monthly sustaining donor member. By donating $25, $50, $75, or $100/month you can help to sustain the incredible variety of activities, services, and resources Q-MoB provides and assure all of these activities are accessible to men regardless of their age, income, or ability, and best of all you can avoid having to donate at each and every event you attend. Monthly Sustaining Members pay only once a month and then can attend all our activities with no further donation.

REACHING US THE DAY OF THE EVENT: If the day of the event you cannot join us, have trouble finding the group, or will be late, please text one of the Co-Hosts: Bart at 503-734-6508 or Andy at 339-221-3051.