Years after Bill Stein came out to friends and colleagues, he moved near family in Oregon and went back into hiding.

If someone at his Portland retirement home makes an anti-gay slur, Stein, 86, says nothing. 

"I'm, by nature, chicken," the retired anthropology professor said. " If you don't say 'I'm gay,' you pass. I'm pretty well closeted."  

On Valentine's Day, Stein drove to Gresham to visit Rainbow Vista, one of the first retirement homes in the nation marketed to gay seniors. After a lunch of spaghetti with heart-shaped garlic toast, he played cards and chatted with the owner, the manager and a gay couple who plan to move in this summer.

But the rest of the dining room was deserted, as were most apartments. Rainbow Vista , 10 months old, has just two tenants, both straight. They are holdovers from the era when the building was marketed to the mainstream.

Nationwide, dozens of groups have tried to build retirement communities for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people. So far, only three have opened, said Gerard Koskovich, who tracks the subject for the Lesbian and Gay Aging Issues Network.

Aging experts, entrepreneurs and nonprofit groups say the need is there, but the challenge is more complex than if-you-build-it-they-will-come: raising money; finding an affordable, attractive and gay-friendly locale; motivating people who -- like all senior citizens -- might want or need anything from Pilates classes to nursing care.

So far, "there hasn't been the interest and demand I expected. . . . I don't really care," said Rainbow Vista owner Henry Moshberger, 65, adding that he'll persist. "This is where I'm living. Basically, I bought a retirement home for myself and all my friends."

The push for housing stems mostly from gay baby boomers. More open than previous generations, they don't expect to hide as they age. But in a 2006 poll, fewer than half had confidence that health care professionals would treat them with respect as they grow older.

In the past decade, communities have brought forward at least 40 ideas for gay senior housing, but many stalled in the planning. So far, an upscale project in Santa Fe that opened in 2006 has had difficulty filling. An affordable complex that opened in 2007 in Hollywood , Calif. , has had more success.

Unlike those, Rainbow Vista didn't emerge from market surveys or social service work -- just the drive of a single entrepreneur. An Oregon native, Moshberger lived in California , where he bought and sold real estate.

In mid-2005, he needed an investment to avoid big taxes on proceeds from another sale. The former Camlu Retirement Apartments, with its bright views of Mount Hood, had sat vacant for several years before Moshberger spotted it on visits to his sister's Gresham condo.

"I probably shouldn't admit this," he said, but he bought the building for just more than $1 million without ever looking inside.

It's one of several cookie-cutter nursing homes built in the 1970s. While cheerfully redecorated, its age shows in modestly sized apartments, tiny bathrooms and individual "kitchens" that consist of a microwave and refrigerator. The building boasts an impressive commercial kitchen, but there aren't enough residents to justify daily meal service.

Camlu's nursing license had expired, and Moshberger wasn't interested in entering such a highly regulated field. With his sister as manager, he decided to pitch the new Autumn Park as a building for active senior citizens.

It didn't work. By June of last year, Moshberger changed plans, establishing a nonprofit and rechristening the building Rainbow Vista with a new motto: " A Place of Our Own."

 Moshberger knew about discrimination. Ten years ago, he left a senior citizens mobile home park in California after someone saw him kissing a male friend on his front porch. Formerly friendly neighbors froze him out as managers nitpicked his yard and patio.

 "Younger people, when you tell them what we're doing (at Rainbow Vista), they say, 'Why would you need to do that?' They don't see the problem," Moshberger said. "In their age group, there isn't that discrimination. In my age group, there is."

 A couple of months ago, he hired manager Ian Jones, a certified nursing assistant with a degree in health care administration. Jones has years of experience in caring for senior citizens and hopes Rainbow Vista ultimately will expand its services.  

Donald Bramley, 70, and Howard Turner, 67, are decorating a double studio apartment and plan to move in July.

 At the Valentine's party, they played with Jones' green-cheeked conure, the backs of their hands touching as the bird scrambled from one set of fingers to the next.

 "If you're not gay, you don't understand the needs . . . to talk to people, and just be totally relaxed and not have to watch what you're saying," Turner said. "It makes life much simpler."

 Stein chatted with them about travel, teaching and his books on Peruvian anthropology. He hopes to move this spring.

 "The more I come out here, the more unhappy I am in the situation I've got," he said. "I'm free here."