Outstanding Leadership in Queens
2020 Honoree of the Queens Federation of Churches

Marc L. Greenberg

Marc Greenberg is the Executive Director and co-founder of the Interfaith Assembly on Homelessness and housing. Grounded in belief that safe, decent and affordable is a basic human right, since 1985, the Assembly has addressed homelessness in New York City by working as partners with faith communities, elected officials, fellow advocates, and those who have themselves experienced homelessness.

Founded at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, beginning in 1985, the Assembly held an overnight vigil in City Hall Park for 28 years to call on the City to consider the needs of homeless New Yorkers as it established its budget. In 1988 – when the overnight vigil turned into a 200 day encampment led by those who were homeless – the Assembly partnered with New York Catholic Charities to establish a life-skills empowerment program to help people to recover from the trauma associated with their homelessness and rebuild their lives. Since the program’s inception, 12 replications have been established from which over 1,500 people have graduated. Many of the graduates are now serving others who have experienced homelessness.

Fundamental to the Assembly’s mission is its participation in campaigns to establish a more equitable and compassionate city and in this regard, since its founding the Assembly has been engaged in a number of very successful efforts. Among these, the Campaign 4 NY/NY Housing which resulted in a City/State commitment to produce 35,000 supportive housing units state wide over 15 years; the Right To Counsel Campaign which resulted in the passage of a bill providing free lawyers in housing court for low income tenants; and, most recently, the House Our Future Campaign which provided the public pressure that resulted in a bill that requires that the vast majority of city funded housing projects will include a 15% set-aside for households who are coming out of homelessness. In addition to its homeless empowerment and advocacy campaigns, the Assembly is engaged in efforts to assist faith communities with property to consider the viability of developing affordable housing for those who are homeless and at risk of homelessness – and in assisting faith communities to be welcoming neighbors to those who are homeless.