Speakers

David Downs is a community development practitioner with 20 years of diverse experience as an affordable housing developer, program manager, and planner with established non-profit, public, and private sector relationships. David currently serves as Senior Vice President of Catholic Charities POP (Progress of Peoples) Development Corporation, the affordable housing development affiliate of Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens, and founding Director of Laudato Si Corporation, the mission-aligned sustainability and resiliency entity under CCBQ and CCPOPD.

In David's dual roles with Catholic Charities since 2019 (and previously from 2012 to 2014), he works to strategize, plan, and implement affordable housing and mixed-use real estate development and sustainability projects as part of the Catholic Charities POP Development portfolio. Recent projects include the Livonia C3 (aka Gail P. Duke Senior Residence and Older Adult Center) in Brownsville, Brooklyn, the Bishop Valero Senior Residence in Astoria, Queens, and multiple phases of the Laudato Si Solar Energy Retrofit initiative with a potential for over 1.75 MW of renewable energy to be harnessed on 15 POP affordable housing properties in Brooklyn and Queens. David advocates for strategic planning efforts focused on affordable housing development, policy, and sustainability models, including energy efficiency, resiliency, and healthy living. David is a Fellow in the 2025-26 Global Exchange cohort sponsored by the Urban Design Forum in New York City.

David also currently serves on the Enterprise New York Policy Committee, P.S. 40 Augustus Saint-Gaudens School Leadership Team and Audit Committee, and previously as Juror on the Bank of America national Affordable Housing Challenge and the Age-Friendly Brooklyn Task Force convened by the New York Academy of Medicine with the Brooklyn Borough President’s Office. For more information about David’s professional experience, visit his professional profile at LinkedIn