BOSTON (WHDH) - A future home for LGBTQ-friendly senior housing in Hyde Park was vandalized over the weekend when threatening messages were spray-painted around its construction site.
LGBTQ Senior Housing Inc. said signs surrounding the future site of “The Pryde” housing complex were vandalized sometime overnight. Some messages included slurs while others appeared to be direct threats to the security of the building.
Dozens of people, including Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, attended a solidarity rally at the former William Barton Rogers School Sunday afternoon, where the project is underway.
“We outnumbered this coward today, 150 to 1,” said Gretchen Van Ness, the executive director of LGBTQ Senior Housing Inc.
The Pryde is being billed as New England’s first LGBTQ-friendly senior affordable housing complex and will include 74 units of safe and accessible mixed-income housing for all seniors, including LGBTQ members. The developers said there is a high need for this kind of housing as LGBTQ seniors are often less likely to have children or a family network to care for them.
“We are doing this for the generation that made it possible for us to have equal marriage, to have anti-discrimination laws, for us to be able to walk down the street and hold hands with the person that we love,” Van Ness said.
Boston Police are investigating the incident, according to Mayor Wu. She said what happened over the weekend is another reminder to keep pressing forward on the project that means a great deal to many.
“This will be one small blip in our continued march to getting this project ready,” Wu said. “Affordable housing for seniors in our community, LGBTQ-friendly… it represents everything we want to see in the City of Boston and right here in Hyde Park,” Wu said.
In a statement, Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden said the incident will not stand and that the DA’s office will prosecute threats to the LGBTQ+ community whenever they happen.
“It breaks my heart to see these ugly threats targeting a project—and a community—of such importance to our city,” Hayden said. “This is the second straight weekend of Boston being marred by hatred and intolerance. This cannot stand. My office will prosecute threats to the LGBTQ+ community wherever and whenever they occur.”
By the end of Sunday’s solidarity gathering, the vandalized signs were covered with posters featuring positive and inclusive messaging.
The Pryde is set to be completed in fall 2023.
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