Thehbia Hiwot Joins Trinity as Managing Director, Housing and Homelessness Initiative

This week Trinity Church Wall Street welcomes Thehbia Hiwot to our team as Managing Director for the Housing and Homelessness initiative.

“Thehbia brings over 20 years of experience in the development and preservation of affordable housing,” said Beatriz de la Torre, Chief Philanthropy Officer. “Her experience at both the city and the state levels will be tremendously helpful to Trinity as we continue to address housing insecurity and homelessness, which is directly tied to the supply of affordable housing in our city.”

Before joining Trinity, Hiwot served as the Senior Vice President at New York State Homes and Community Renewal (HCR), where she led the finance and development teams responsible for creating and preserving affordable multifamily housing across New York.

She was previously the Executive Director of Housing Programs at the Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery, where she implemented grant funds to rebuild storm impacted communities in the state, and for ten years served in various roles in the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

Trinity is committed to breaking the cycle of mass homelessness and housing instability in New York City by advocating for our neighbors who are unhoused or on the brink of losing their homes and supporting the work of nonprofits, networks, and coalitions that address both immediate needs and the underlying causes of the housing crisis — including creating and expanding access to affordable housing.

In 1981 Trinity visioned and has since supported St. Margaret’s House, an affordable housing development for elderly and disabled residents in Lower Manhattan. Earlier this year, St. Margaret’s House underwent major renovations to provide residents and their guests with new public space — including an art room, a tech room, a yoga and dance studio, and more — and programming to enrich community life.

Part of Hiwot’s work will be overseeing the development of an underutilized parcel at St. Margaret’s House, ensuring Trinity continues to be a direct participant in the creation of new affordable housing in the city.

“The Housing and Homelessness initiative has been running for close to five years and, although I feel very proud of the work we’ve done and the grantees we’ve supported, it’s time to take our work to another level,” said de la Torre. “The team — Terri Davis-Merchant, Damyury Almonte, and Sidney Lok — is amazing, and I know with Thehbia’s leadership they are going to do even greater things. I’m grateful for their work, their smarts, and their passion.”