Among Our People

Gay retirement housing, from Among Our People

Older friends dressed in white doing yoga together on an outdoor deck

Gay retirement housing, shared with your own people

Co-housing projects, shared houses and homeshares for gay, lesbian, bi and trans people over 50, single or in couples. We're not a retirement home or a care provider. We help you find the people to live with, and it's free to join.

By the Among Our People team · Last updated

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Projects forming now

Real projects looking for people. This list updates as new ones are posted.

A gay retirement village in Spain, with a Club Med feelForming

A gay retirement village in Spain, with a Club Med feel

Costa Blanca (Alicante), and the coast around Valencia

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Friends of different ages cooking and eating together in a sunny kitchenGuide

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Anywhere you choose

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How it works

  1. 1

    Search or browse.

    Look for a project near where you'd like to live, or browse them all. If there's nothing nearby yet, post your idea on the notice board.

  2. 2

    Create your free profile.

    Say what you're after, from a room in a shared house to your own home in a co-housing group. A photo and a few lines help others know who they're talking to.

  3. 3

    Ask to join, meet, decide together.

    Take your time. Co-housing groups often meet for a couple of years before anything is built, so nobody's rushing you.

Four smiling men in their fifties and sixties with their arms round each other in a parkFour women of different ages with their arms round each other outdoors
Small wooden houses among trees and gardens

Why plan it here

When Tonic, Stonewall Housing and Opening Doors London asked 624 LGBTQ+ people over 50 in London in 2020, 56% said they'd prefer an LGBTQ+ retirement community. Only 1% chose a general one without LGBTQ+ accreditation (Building Safe Choices, 2020). That's London, but it's what a lot of us want, and there are still only a handful of places like that. So here you start with the people instead: find others who want the same thing, then build it or find it together. You can see who's behind every project before you get in touch, and every new listing is checked before it goes live.

Two older men laughing together at a table
"I spent ten years trying to build a gay retirement village and couldn't find the people to do it with. So I built the place where we can find each other."

Eric Crespin, founder of Among Our People

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What exists today

Gay and LGBTQ+ retirement communities do exist, but there are very few, and places are hard to get.

  • United States: affordable LGBTQ+-friendly buildings for people 62 and over, like Stonewall House in Brooklyn (145 apartments) and The Pryde in Boston (74 apartments and more than 700 applications). There's also Village Hearth, a 55+ co-housing community of 28 homes in Durham, North Carolina.
  • UK: Tonic@Bankhouse in London, where no apartments are free right now, and Kindred House in Manchester, due to open in 2027.
  • Europe: Regnbågen in Stockholm (28 apartments for over-55s, with close to 300 people on its waiting list in 2023), Lebensort Vielfalt in Berlin (two buildings, opened in 2012 and 2023), and the Maison de la Diversité in Lyon, which opened in October 2025 with 16 apartments. A public residence for older LGBTQ+ people is being prepared in Madrid.

If none of these is near you, or the waiting list runs into years, that's where the projects on this site come in.

Sources

Common questions

Yes, but only a handful, in the US, the UK and a few European cities. Most have long waiting lists.

No. We don't build homes, run them or provide care. Among Our People helps LGBTQ+ people find each other to start or join co-housing projects, shared houses and homeshares.

No. It's for gay, lesbian, bi and trans people over 50, single or in couples. Each project says who it's for.

Private homes with shared spaces, where the residents make decisions together. Most groups meet regularly for a couple of years before anything is built.

Joining, starting a project and posting on the notice board are free. Pinning your project to the top of the list costs a small fee, and that's free too while our launch offer lasts, once your profile is complete. What it costs to live in a project depends on the project.

Yes. Landowners, builders, solicitors, local councils and anyone with a skill to offer can tag themselves to a project and say how they could help.

Create your free profile

Choose what brings you here, then finish signing up on Among Our People.

From the guides