Bea Arthur’s homeless shelter for LGBT youth will open next year in New York

In 2005, Golden Girls star Bea Arthur put on a benefit show for The Ali Forney Center, a New York-based charity dedicated to helping LGBT youth. Then, upon her death a few years later, Arthur bequeathed $300,000 to the organization, giving it enough money to continue operating and break ground on a homeless shelter for LGBT youth. Now, DNAinfo is reporting that the shelter—dubbed The Bea Arthur Residence, due to her being one of Ali Forney Center’s “greatest supporters and cheerleaders”—will open early next year. Located on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, the 18-bed shelter was originally set to open this summer, but workers had to gut the “long-derelict” building before getting started on the necessary renovations, which pushed everything behind schedule. Once it’s all finished, the Bea Arthur Residence will offer “beds, on-site counseling, and case management to the city’s homeless gay and transgender youth.”