Sitting on a bench next to his friend Roosevelt Adams, 81-year-old Michael Palumbaro says he is filled with gratitude.

“I never thought that I would become a senior,” he says. “Because I tested HIV positive in 1987, when people were dying left and right.”

Mr. Palumbaro also never imagined that in his 70s, he would become one of the first residents of John C. Anderson Apartments (JCAA). Opened in 2014, the building is America’s first senior affordable housing complex marketed as LGBTQ-friendly. Almost all tenants are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender, with supportive services run by an LGBTQ+ community center nearby. […]