A nonprofit senior center near Crotona Park is helping LGBTQ elders avoid facing a lonely holiday season.
SAGE Center Bronx, which is located within the same building as the Crotona Pride House, a seven-story residential building that provides some of the city’s only subsidized housing tailored towards LGBTQ seniors, is closely affiliated with the residents. The center, formerly located in the Fordham neighborhood, opened its location at 1784 Prospect Ave. during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic but celebrated its official opening in September 2023.
When the Bronx Times visited the center on Dec. 30, the entire lobby and atrium were decked out with holiday decorations. A huge pink vintage-style Christmas tree (with Santa on top) sat in the lobby, and a balloon archway welcomed people into the atrium with a pool table, TV and corner set up with another Christmas tree.
The center is designed to appeal to all five senses, and special attention is paid to what greets people as they walk in, said Director Jose Collazo, who has worked with the center for 10 years. Music is always playing, he said — this time, it was videos from National Public Radio’s wildly popular “Tiny Desk” concerts playing on large projector screens. The smell of food and coffee filled the air, and everything on the walls, from the Christmas decor to dozens of original paintings by center participants, was bright and colorful. Hugs, greetings and smiles were all around.
“We want it to be more of an experience when you come here,” Collazo said.
According to Collazo, the only requirement is that attendees must register with an ID and be over age 60. Beyond that, staff don’t discriminate based on citizenship status or any other factor. He estimates that at least half of the members belong to the LGBTQ community.
The center offers a catered lunch Monday through Friday, which is a big draw — but that’s just the start, as other programming is meant to keep people coming back, whether for painting, crafts, exercise classes or the biggest hit, a bingo game that requires participants to move some part of their body as numbers are called. Another popular activity is Friday music appreciation, where seniors try can out different instruments.
“Friday is the model we try to create for everyday,” said Collazo.
For some, the SAGE Center is seniors’ first and only line of support, as many LGBTQ elders live alone and may not have a partner or kids nearby. Collazo spoke of one man who got hit by a car and lost his bag of personal belongings. When he left the hospital and had no keys to get back into his apartment, his first stop was to the SAGE Center, where staff helped him contact a locksmith and get back on his feet.
The center aims to meet seniors’ every need, with a computer room that offers practical tech classes and dedicated rooms for exercise and arts. It also offers two food pantry days per month, one for nonperishable items and one with fresh foods. It can be hard for seniors to get to grocery stores, especially in the notoriously hilly area around Crotona Park, so the pantries make it easy, Collazo said. “Within a month, they get everything.”
‘Keep coming back’
Anthony Howell, 61, who refers to himself as a “same-gender-loving man,” is originally from Harlem and has lived in the Bronx for over 20 years. He currently lives just a block from the SAGE Center.
Howell is fortunate to have a strong social network thanks to his longtime work as a dance instructor, but the center helps him stay even more connected to the community. His group, the Tony Howell Dance Collective, performed African diasporic dances at the center five times over the past year, and he frequently drops by for lunch or just to chat with Collazo and others.
LGBTQ seniors face many challenges, such as prejudice, ageism, financial limitations and the threat of violence, said Howell. “I worry about being vulnerable,” he said. “Truthfully speaking, we are alone more often the older we get.”
Living close to the SAGE Center helps Howell meet new people and stay in touch with neighbors, as they see each other there and also run into each other in the neighborhood, he said. “That’s how I’m connected to this community, is really through the center.”
Howell is preparing to return to full-time employment, not in dance but as a social worker. He got his MSW from Fordham in 2018 and is interviewing for jobs, especially those aimed at helping people battle addiction. Howell said he struggled with staying sober in the past until a 12-step program “led [him] to a higher consciousness.”
Among both young and old LGBTQ people, Howell said he worries about substance use as a coping mechanism. Societal expectations and stereotypes of how people should look and act can weigh heavily on people, he said. “We have to transcend that.”
Being an active member of the SAGE Center and occasionally contracting with them for performances has helped Howell reinforce an important lesson: find other positive, like-minded people and rely on them instead of relying on substances.
“‘Just stick with the herd’ is something I heard about early on,” he said. When you find a place where you belong, “Keep coming back.”
Reach Emily Swanson at [email protected] or (646) 717-0015. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
