SF LGBT Senior Agency Welcomes New Leader

The ceremony Thursday to dedicate the city's first housing designed specifically for LGBT seniors will also serve as a public debut for Karyn Skultety, Ph.D., the new leader of Openhouse, the leading service provider for LGBT seniors in San Francisco.

Skultety, 40, stepped down as the vice president of health services at the Institute on Aging to join Openhouse Monday, February 13 as its new executive director.

"I have been an admirer of Openhouse throughout my career in aging services," said Skultety, who received her doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and earned her undergraduate degree in psychology and cognitive science at Johns Hopkins University.

Skultety initially wanted to become a doctor, but switched careers after realizing she would never pass the required organic chemistry course, and even more importantly, passed out at the sight of blood. After landing a job as a research assistant in a cognitive science lab working with people recovering from strokes, she met a woman who helped chart her career path into aging.

"I was fascinated by this woman's strength. They wanted me to focus on what she couldn't do, and all I could pay attention to was all the things she could do," recalled Skultety. "She came up with ingenious ways to stay in her home. It is how I fell in love with aging. It has been my life's work helping people stay in their homes."

It is a key goal Skultety has brought with her to Openhouse, to ensure LGBT seniors can age with dignity where they are currently living in the city. She plans to continue, and build on, the work Openhouse has already been doing to achieve that goal, from partnering LGBT seniors with visitors who regularly socialize with them in their homes and in the community to training the staff at nursing homes and assisted-living facilities on how to ensure their LGBT residents feel welcomed and supported.

"I want to make sure every LGBT senior feels at home no matter where they are living," said Skultety.

It is also a recognition that the agency can't build enough senior housing to meet the demand that exists. In a city known for its high housing costs and lengthy development battles, Skultety said Openhouse was "brave" to embark nearly two decades ago on a mission to build housing for LGBT seniors in the city.

Several years ago the agency partnered with Mercy Housing California to open what will be a 119-unit affordable senior housing development. The residents of the first 41 units built in the renovated Richardson Hall, a former college building, are already settling in to their new apartments in what is now known as the Openhouse Community at 55 Laguna.

Construction to turn the adjacent parking lot into a new building with an additional 79 below-market-rate units of senior housing will break ground at Thursday's ceremony. It is slated to open in early 2019.

The public will also get its first chance at the event to see Openhouse's new, permanent offices at 65 Laguna Street, known as the Bob Ross LGBT Senior Center due to a $1 million donation from the foundation of the B.A.R.'s founding publisher. A bronze plaque honoring Ross, who died in 2003, greets everyone who enters the front door.

One of Skultety's tasks this year will be to raise the necessary funds to build out the agency's 8,000 square feet of additional space in the new building, which Openhouse plans to use for larger community events and classes. Five years ago the nonprofit launched what it called an expansion campaign with a goal of raising close to $8 million for construction costs and funding expanded services; Skultety said it has raised half of the money to date.

With the opening of both the senior housing and its new offices, Openhouse is in an even better position to complete the fundraising drive, said Skultety.

"There has been a lot of interest in what we are doing," she said.

One possibility she is looking into is if Openhouse should become a licensed provider of an adult day care center in its new space. It currently doesn't offer any licensed programs in contrast to other providers of senior services in the city.

"It is important to explore if we should offer that next level of care," she said.

In her previous job with the aging institute, Skultety, who is bisexual, oversaw a budget of more than $15 million and over 150 staff members. She declined to disclose her salary at Openhouse; her predecessor had been making nearly $135,000 in total compensation, according to the agency's 2014 tax filings.

She lives in Noe Valley with her wife, Sarah Mark, the director of learning and development at Edgewood Center for Children and Families in the city's West Portal neighborhood, their 7-year-old son, Quinn, and their daughter, Nova, who turns 4 next month.

The couple, who met in 2005 and married two years later, again exchanged vows in 2008 when same-sex marriage was briefly legal in California. They had been living in the city's gay Castro district prior to moving over the hill into their current home.

"We are your stereotypical two-mom family," said Skultety, joking they drive a Subaru and a Prius.