Rashida Tyler serves as the Deputy Executive Director of the New York State Council of Churches and as the Project Manager for the Interfaith Affordable Housing Collaborative. She is a passionate advocate for social and economic justice, especially for women in low-income and disenfranchised communities. Rashida is the former Associate Executive Director of Community Outreach and Program Development for the YMCA of Kingston and Ulster County. Previously she served as Director of Research and Operational Programming for the Ulster County Attorney’s Office.
Rashida works with many community organizations and advocacy groups to help work toward meaningful change and community uplift. Rashida is the Co-Founder of the Real Kingston Tenants Union and Founder of the Ulster County Coalition for Housing Justice to empower tenants and advocate for housing justice in the City of Kingston and Ulster County. The organization continues to not only advocate for housing justice but directly assist tenants by holding legal workshops, a housing resource fair, housing forums and assisting tenants in locating housing, and applying for housing assistance. Rashida is the Founder of Black Women At Work, a group that seeks to provide mentorship and networking opportunities to African American women in the Mid-Hudson Valley. She also serves as a board member of Ulster County’s Industrial Development Agency. She is President of the AME Zion Church of Kingston’s Lay Council and the Pastor’s Steward.
Rashida earned her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science and History from Marist College, an M.A. in Africana Studies from SUNY at Albany and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy. She is a 2016 Women in Government and Civil Society Fellow, a 2017 graduate of the Women’s Campaign School at Yale, a 2018 graduate of the New Leaders Council Fellowship, and a 2022 Hudson Valley Top Forty Under 40 Mover & Shaker Honoree.
Jason Labate is an attorney focusing on faith-based development, not-for-profit law, affordable housing and community development. He is a frequent presenter on faith based & non-profit real estate issues and is a co-author of Changing the Paradigm: Creating Scale & Keeping Local Expertise in Nonprofit Affordable Housing Development in the Journal of Affordable Housing and Community Development Law. Jason has a JD from Brooklyn Law School and MPA from NYU and a BA from the University of Chicago.
Marc Greenberg (Governance, Outreach and Assessment, and Bullpen Committees): Marc Greenberg is the Executive Director and co-founder of the Interfaith Assembly on Homelessness and housing. Since the Assembly’s establishment in 1985, Marc has been addressing homelessness through advocating public policy solutions and other strategies in partnership with an ever broadening network of faith communities, other advocates, housing and service providers, elected officials and those who have experienced homelessness.
Rev. Peter Cook serves as Executive Director of the New York State Council of Churches which represents 7,000 congregations across the state of New York. In his pastoral roles, he has been a strong advocate for the development of affordable housing. He currently serves as Vice-President of the Interfaith Affordable Housing Collaborative and is directing the Council’s Who is My Neighbor Community Development Initiative to help faith institutions use their property to better serve their town. The Council is also part of the Faith-Based Affordable Housing and Community Development Partnership recently funded by Trinity Church Wall Street. The Partnership helps congregations in New York use their property to build affordable housing and promote more just housing policies.
Mr. Kemper is an experienced professional and leader in real estate management and consulting, as well as not for profit management and leadership. Casey has served as an executive of public and private corporations, and an endowed faith-based organization. After his tenure as Chief Operating Officer of Collegiate Church Corporation, he co-founded K4 Real Estate Group, an advisory service. During his tenure at Collegiate Church Corporation, he transformed a legacy portfolio of undermanaged properties into an institutional grade portfolio. In doing so, he played a major role in creating substantial real estate value. Mr. Kemper holds a degree in Business Management from Southern Illinois University and an MBA from Babson College. He is a co-founder of New Amsterdam History Center, where he is Past President (2010-2018).
Mr. DeRienzo has worked in community development since the 1970s, when he organized Banana Kelly Community Improvement Association, a group that has redeveloped thousands of affordable housing units. In 1982, Mr. DeRienzo headed up the Parodneck Foundation. During his tenure at Parodneck, he was responsible for a number of innovative programs. In November 2002, at the request of the New York State Attorney General’s office, Mr. DeRienzo returned to Banana Kelly to help rescue it from bankruptcy. Mr. DeRienzo has been published and has spoken locally, nationally and internationally. The Concept of Community, Lessons from the Bronx, was published by IPOC Press in 2008. A second book, Building Housing/Building Communities, is scheduled for publication in May. A third book, Preventing the Next American Revolution, How Culture, Community and Democracy Frame Human Progress, is currently under consideration for publication.
Bishop Kermitt L. Williams – a Brooklyn native who founded the “C.O.P.E.P.A.C.” (Community Orientations for Positive Encouragement for Parents of Addicted Children) in 1987. In September 1992, he organized the Agape Fellowship for All People and currently serves as Senior Pastor/Bishop. He became a credentialed substance abuse counselor (CASAC) in 1999. In 1994, he was consecrated General Overseer of Social Action of the Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship. As a community activist, Bishop remains committed to community development and has served at the pleasure of the Brooklyn Borough President as a member of Community Planning Boards 16 (Brownsville) and 4(Bushwick). Additionally, he serves as the Executive Director/CEO of Kingdom Faith Developers, is a consultant for the National Head Start Association, and is a member of the National Association of Christian Counselors.
David Aviles, is the Executive Director of the United Clergy Task Force (UCFT). Throughout his career in real estate and finance, Bronx-born David Aviles has dedicated his time and resources to helping faith-based communities execute charitable drives, financial education and capacity building programs. To continue this work in more meaningful ways, David founded the UCTF in 2013. UCTF is currently developing projects in Puerto Rico and in the New York Metropolitan region. In Puerto Rico, David has been overseeing long-term social and economic recovery projects since the destruction of Hurricane Maria.
In addition to his work with the UCTF, David has been an active Board member for Bronx Clergy Task Force, (2005-Present); American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (2005-Present); Imagine Me Leadership Charter School, Former founding Board Member (2009-Present); Interfaith Assembly on Homelessness and Housing (IAHH) (2015-Present) and Bricks and Mortals (2018-Present).
The Rev. Dr. Robert Foltz-Morrison is the Executive Presbyter (Elder) of the Presbytery of New York City, a regional body of the Presbyterian Church (USA). The Presbytery has more than 11 language groups among its 90 congregations in the five boroughs and 11 new worshiping communities. Rev. Foltz-Morrison has served as a pastor in the Presbyteries of NYC, Twin Cities Area (MN), Newark, and Albany, and as a Presbytery Executive in Central New Jersey. A native of New Jersey, he also lived in Miami, FL and Balboa, Republic of Panama as a youth. He is a graduate of Davidson College (NC), Princeton Theological Seminary, and Hartford Seminary (DMin). His wife Leslie also is an ordained Presbyterian minister. They have two young adult sons.
Kate Toth is Executive Director of Bricks and Mortals, a project of Judson Memorial Church, which has the mission of providing creative, sustaining solutions to help houses of worship thrive amidst the costly and challenging landscape of operating in New York City. With a background in advocacy, program development and fundraising, Kate has more than 15 years supporting and empowering vulnerable communities. Kate has worked as an LGBT Liaison, run field campaigns across the Northeast, and in supportive housing. She holds an BA from New York University and an MSc from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Kate was a Fellow in the NYU Wagner FELPS program and is a New York Community Trust Leadership Fellow. She's proud to be a born and bred New Yorker.
Carol Lamberg was Executive Director of the Settlement Housing Fund from 1983 - 2014. She had worked on the staff of Settlement Housing since its inception in 1969. Before that, she was Vice President of Roger Schafer Associates. Ms. Lamberg was also Staff Director and co-founder of the New York Housing Conference before becoming Co-Chair from 2008 until 2016. She is now the only Life Trustee. In that capacity she had drafted amendments to the Housing Act of 1937, the National Housing Act and the New York State Private Housing Finance Law.
Carol Lamberg is a graduate of Radcliffe College and was a Loeb Fellow at Harvard University. She has written a book, "Neighborhood Success Stories," describing the Two Bridges urban renewal area on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and New Settlement Apartments in the Bronx. The book was published by Fordham University Press in May 2018.
Ted Houghton is the President of Gateway Housing, a nonprofit initiative to transform New York City’s response to homelessness by reinvesting in shelter to improve transitional programs, spur the development of permanent affordable housing, and strengthen community supports. Prior to Gateway, Ted served as Executive Deputy Commissioner of New York State Homes and Community Renewal (HCR), and led the Supportive Housing Network of New York. He has worked for both the New York City Department of Homeless Services and the Coalition for the Homeless.
Gayle F. Robinson, most recently, Chief Operating Officer of Marble Collegiate Church has more than 35 years of corporate, consulting and not-for-profit executive level management experience.
Formerly, Executive Director, Russell Reynolds Associates; Executive Director of Global Cash Management and Trade Finance Sales in North America for Citibank; and, Senior Vice President and Head of Underwriting, Ambac Financial Group.
Ms. Robinson is a Trustee of Montefiore Medical Center, a Trustee of The Episcopal Diocese of New York, a Trinity Church Wall Street Trustee, a member of the East Harlem Tutorial Leadership Council, a Trustee of the Center of Theological Inquiry (Princeton, NJ), a former Director of the New York State Council of Governing Boards, and Trustee Emerita and former Chair of the Barnard College Board of Trustees. Ms. Robinson has earned a B.A from Barnard College with a major in economics and a M.B.A. from Columbia Business School.
Frederick Jackson serves as Treasurer of the NYSCOC Executive Committee. He is member of the Finance Committee and the Social Justice Commission. Fred serves his local Episcopal church making use of his financial experience and has experience in Lay Church Management and Legislative advocacy. The “Who is my Neighbor?” program of the NYSCOC is of special interest to him in both the Capital Region and Manhattan.
Meta Brunzema is an architect and urban designer focusing on socially progressive, culturally rich and climate-neutral design. Working with public agencies, non-profit organizations and private clients, her designs foster resilience and re-ignite curiosity and meaningful engagement with the world. Her work includes large-scale re-zonings, waterfront developments, urban parks, promenades and green infrastructure - as well as public open spaces. Her architectural and adaptive re-use work focuses on the design of healthy and sustainable buildings and interiors. She is currently co-developing WE_GENERATE (beta), an interactive parametric real-estate feasibility analysis and visualization tool that democratizes community planning processes.
Rev. Dr. William S. Shillady has been a pastor of three churches in the New York Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. In 2008, he became the executive of the United Methodist City Society, a multi-faceted mission program agency of the United Methodist Church in the metro area. Their programs range from children and youth, social service agencies, addiction recovery services, affordable housing, and managing a cemetery. The agency covers from cradle to grave. Bill has held many offices and served on many boards. He is on the Mayor’s Faith leaders advisory council. He is a member of the Bricks and Mortals Board of Directors, an agency helping churches to utilize their properties in creative ways. He is the treasurer of the Council of Churches of the City of New York. He has been a pastor to the Clinton family since 2002.
The IAHC (the Collaborative) was established to promote the development of supportive and affordable housing on faith- based properties in New York City and across New York State through the provision of pre-development funds, technical assistance, advice, and the promotion of public policies that support this objective. The Collaborative seeks to ensure that congregations and faith -based organizations (FBOs) across the state will be equipped with the knowledge and capacity to make the most informed decisions about the use of their property.
History and Founding
In 2017, the Collaborative was established to help support “mission driven affordable housing development on Faith properties by helping to match faith based properties with technical assistance and other resources”. In 2018, the Collegiate Church Corporation provided a grant to establish the technical assistance pre-development recoverable grant fund and provided staff support through it's executive offices for the year. We also received funding from the Dergah Al Farah--a Muslim Sufi order. The Collaborative established it's Board of Conveners, and reached an agreement with the Fund for the City of New York to act as the Collaborative’s fiscal sponsor as we pursued independent fiscal status.
Outreach, education and promoting public policy
In the two years following the establishment of the Collaborative, the Interfaith Assembly on Homelessness and Housing (IAHH) and the New York State Council of Churches (NYSCOC) engaged in multiple campaigns to promote public policy solutions to address the need for affordable housing in New York State and to educate congregations about the option of developing affordable housing on their property – with some significant public policy successes. NYSCOC, in partnership with Goldstein Hall, Attorneys at Law and others, offered a series of workshops entitled “Who is My Neighbor” to begin to familiarize congregations across New York State with the affordable housing development process. With NYSCOC taking the lead, the Collaborative began working with the New York Attorney General’s office and pre-development agencies out of New York City to provide pre-development funds from New York State to support the development of affordable housing on faith-based property.
The establishment of the Partnership for Faith-Based Affordable Housing and Community Development
In 2019, IAHC came together with IAHH, NYSCOC and Bricks and Mortals to form the Partnership for Faith-Based Affordable Housing and Community Development. The Partnership applied for and received a grant from Trinity Church Wall Street’s office on Homelessness and Housing beginning in 2020.
As of August of 2021, the IAHC pre-development fund totaled $106,000, with $80,000 specifically designated for New York City.
We need to gather information about your project to determine whether you are eligible to apply for a pre-development grant to cover a variety of development expenses incurred to determine the feasibility of your project and to assemble an RFP or RFQ. Before filling out a survey, please email us to set up a time for an initial conversation with our team.