Wesley Adolphus Pinkney, 71, never imagined he might get to spend his golden years at an independent living community for LGBTQ+ seniors. At one point in time, he didn't think he'd live past his 30s.
In 1986, a doctor diagnosed him with HIV and said he had two years left to live.
"It's now been almost 40 years," Pinkney says, "so anything after this is going to be heaven. To be in this place is like heaven to me."
Pinkney recently applied for a spot at Mary's House for Older Adults, a new 15-unit apartment building for LGBTQ+ seniors in southeast Washington, DC. He says decades ago, it was difficult to be accepted as a gay man — and that he had to "kick the doors down" to change the way society viewed his community. When he walked into Mary's House for the first time, it felt like a homecoming.
"It's like Dorothy in The Wiz," he says. "Click your feet three times and you're home. And that's what I feel. I'm home now."
For Imani Woody Macko, president and CEO of Mary's House, this plot of land in Fort Dupont, a neighborhood east of the Anacostia River, has always been home — even before the apartment building opened. She grew up in a four-bedroom house on the property.
"This house meant so much to me," she says from a third-floor common area inside Mary's House. "As I'm sitting in this room, it's so freaking surreal."
Woody Macko says her father was the first Black homeowner on their street. Later, the entire area became a predominantly Black neighborhood.
She named Mary's House after her mother, but she got the idea to start a senior home after her father was mistreated at a nursing home towards the end of his life.
"I thought, 'gosh, and he's a heterosexual Black older guy,'" she says. "What would have happened had he been an out gay male? A lesbian out? Or an out trans person?"
Opening Mary's House took 12 years. Woody Macko navigated zoning laws, courted private investors and secured a grant from the D.C. government. She even demolished her childhood home after realizing she needed to build a bigger space.
Woody Macko says the demolition made her "heart hurt," but she felt it was worth it. She's a lesbian in her 70s, and speaks about the challenges LGBTQ+ seniors face when seeking safe and affordable housing.
"When you talk about LGBTQ+ and [same-gender loving] people, you're talking about discrimination," Woody Macko says. "We don't know what's safe and or we don't know who's safe. So you pick and choose who to come out to. Including your neighbors. Including the rental office."
34 percent of older LGBTQ+ adults reported being worried they'd have to hide their identity to access senior housing or care services, according to a 2021 report on adults over 50 in Illinois from the nonprofit SAGE — which stands for Services and Advocacy for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Elders.
"We also know that many older [LGBTQ+] adults are less likely to have children and more likely to be single as they age," says Sherrill Wayland, senior director of special initiatives and partnerships at SAGE. "They may need to turn to places like affordable housing and other senior housing developments where they can receive that care and support that they need."
Wayland says SAGE is working with roughly 70 affordable housing projects for LGBTQ+ seniors across the U.S. 26 of them are operational, including Mary's House.
So far, four residents have moved into the new senior home. Wesley Adolphus Pinkney is awaiting the approval of his application, but says he's prepared to give up his two-bedroom apartment for a studio there. More than half of the square footage at Mary's House is dedicated to communal spaces like a meditation room, an arts and crafts room and a computer lab. That aligns with Pinkney's vision for the next chapter of his life. He says making memories with other people is his priority — chatting, watching TV together, breaking bread.
"I don't want to die alone," he says. "I don't want to die in a room all by myself and nobody's there. And I believe this is a place where love is here."
Imani Woody Macko already has big dreams of building an LGBTQ+ senior home in "every ward, every state, every country." She also hopes to expand beyond independent living to assisted living and hospice care, so LGBTQ+ seniors can feel supported at every phase of their lives.
For now, though, she's celebrating Mary's House — a slice of her home, now a home for others.
Copyright 2025 NPR
