Advocating for Our Neighbors

Trinity Church has a long history of advancing social justice in alignment with our belief that every person is created in the image of God and has dignity and value.

Close Rikers protest in front of City Hall. A man with locs looks down in the background, while another bald man in glasses holds a megaphone.

How We Advocate

Trinity’s advocacy reflects the urgency of the moment.

While the challenges facing New York are great, so is the opportunity to foster change and ensure the well-being of our most marginalized neighbors, particularly Black and brown young people. We join campaigns, partner with direct service and advocacy groups, collaborate with those with lived experience, work with policy makers, fund community organizations, and engage in targeted government relations and communications efforts to move our policy priorities forward.

2026 Advocacy Priorities

Enhance Youth Well-Being and Education

Support the creation of high-quality Universal Afterschool for New York City students.

Pass the State’s Solutions Not Suspensions Act to improve school culture and climate by using proven restorative justice practices and social-emotional supports and end the overreliance on suspension as the default disciplinary method.

Increase resources and services for CUNY students, particularly those who have spent time in foster care or are experiencing food and housing insecurity.

Remove Barriers to and Increase the Supply of Affordable Housing

Pass the Faith Based Affordable Housing Act to allow religious institutions to create permanently affordable housing on their land by easing unduly burdensome zoning restrictions.

Ensure effective implementation and advocate for expansion of the statewide Housing Access Voucher Program to serve more people who do not qualify for other rental assistance programs.

Address the Needs of Those Suffering from Severe Mental Health Challenges

Improve and fully fund B-HEARD (Behavioral Health Emergency Assistance Response Division), designed to respond to people in severe mental health crisis, by including trained peers, reducing response times, ensuring operability with 988, and expanding the program to operate 24/7 across the city.

Increase community-based outpatient care, inpatient psychiatric treatment beds and supportive housing for individuals with mental illness.

Reduce the Number of People in City Jails and State Prison and Support Reentry

Ensure the closure of the jails on Rikers Island and creation of smaller borough-based facilities as mandated by law.

Safely reduce the jail population by expanding alternatives to incarceration, supervised release, and reentry support, including housing, employment services, and health and mental health care.

Trinity’s advocacy priorities are informed by, build on, and complement the other ways we serve our New York City community, including direct services, programming, grantmaking, mission investing, and convenings.

Our Impact

Trinity’s impact has been felt on both the state and city level through sustained, values‑driven advocacy.

We helped ensure passage of the city’s Fair Chance for Housing Act, which ends discriminatory housing practices against people with conviction histories. We helped launch the Housing Access Voucher Program, a statewide rental‑assistance initiative that keeps families safely housed. And we have worked with partners to keep the need to close the jails on Rikers Island at the top of the public agenda, as well as to continue grow statewide coalitions pushing for the for the Solutions Not Suspensions bill and the Faith Based Affordable Housing Act.

Testimony to City Council

One way we advocate for policies that support our neighbors is by testifying before the New York City Council and State Legislature. Click through for the full testimonials.