Real Estate

Hyde Park housing development for LGBTQ+ seniors gets federal funding despite GOP pushback

The 74-unit housing project also received a $1 million donation after initially losing federal dollars in July. 

By Molly Farrar

April 11, 2024

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The Pryde, an affordable living community in Hyde Park for LGBTQ+ seniors, is getting another boost in funding — this time from federal lawmakers after Congress stripped nearly $1 million in funding.

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren called Gretchen Van Ness, the executive director of the LGBTQ Senior Housing, Inc., to celebrate the $850,000 of federal money awarded to the project. The Community Project Funding will convert the former school to studio, one-, and two-bedroom apartments.

“I am on the verge of crying with this news,” Van Ness told Warren. “Thank you so much for calling in. This is just phenomenal. I never in a million years thought that this was ever possible after everything we went through last year.”

That was the same amount nixed by Congressional Republicans in July after Representative Ayanna Pressley championed the project.

“The very fact that the Republicans tried to shut us down on this just to be hateful, and to try to keep any federal funding for going into this project, was all the more reason that Congresswoman Presley and Senator Markey and I doubled down on our efforts,” Warren told Van Ness.

The 74-unit housing project also received a $1 million donation in December from the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation after initially losing the federal dollars. 

The Pryde’s residents will be for LGBTQ+ people and allies who are 62 and older and qualify for affordable housing. At least one person needs to be of age to be accepted, and the lottery for residency is closed. Residents are expected to be able to move in by May after nearly two years of construction.

During construction in 2022, the housing development was vandalized with homophobic slurs and threats. Community leaders and neighbors came out to support the project and covered the hateful words with their own.

The complex, which is one of the city’s only LGBTQ+ community spaces, will offer a variety of amenities, including a 10,000-square-foot community space, classrooms, a library, and an art exhibition.