Organizational Embeddedness and the Conflicts that Arise in Community Building at a LGBT Elder Housing Facility

• In Event: 411 - Section on Inequality, Poverty, and Mobility Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 11. Networks and Inequality.

Abstract

To combat social isolation among the old, intentional communities offer specialized programs, services, activities, and social opportunities to stave off loneliness and facilitate social integration of residents. These efforts may be particularly important for older gays and lesbians who reportedly experience more social isolation and loneliness than their heterosexual counterparts. This paper presents a qualitative case study of Lamda Housing (LH) – the only low-income and fair housing facility that caters to gay and lesbian elders in the United States. LH deliberately sought to alleviate problems of isolation through their aim to build a strong sense of “community” among its residents. However, only a minority of residents developed friendships or mutual care-giving/receiving relationships with others in the building; few reported feeling a sense of “community.” In this paper, I account for the absence of “community” where one was expected by lay people, organizers, and staff. LH failed not only to actively generate a sense of “community” among residents, but instead created active barriers to its cultivation from the outset, fostering an institutional legacy of conflict and animosity between LH organizers, building management, and residents; and among residents themselves. Conflicts emerged from discrepancies between LH staff’s needs for impression management, bureaucratic and procedural practices, and residents’ expectations and desires. Contradictions between "business" and "home," played out in a struggle for power between LH staff, building management, and residents.

Author

• Louise Ly