In 2021, Isaac Adlerstein took on what few 23-year-olds do: an executive director role running a small shelter in the basement of a Harlem church. Broadway Community, on the lower floor of the historic Broadway Presbyterian Church on 114th Street and Broadway, provided meals, overnight shelter, medical care, and showers for people experiencing homelessness. 

In just five years, Isaac has more than doubled the organization’s budget, engaged over 6,000 volunteers, and helped transform it into a one-stop hub for New Yorkers in crisis. In addition to meeting its guests’ basic needs, the organization now offers case management, housing navigation, employment assistance, mental health support, and more — giving people the resources needed to truly get back on their feet.

That transformation is only the beginning. Isaac’s vision is to help more of New York City’s 5,000 houses of worship replicate the Broadway Community model of turning underused spaces into nighttime shelters and resource hubs for New Yorkers in need. The opportunity is enormous. In the 1980s, dozens of houses of worship provided hundreds of beds each evening as an alternative to the city’s overcrowded and often dangerous municipal shelter system. But the program, operated through the now-defunct Emergency Shelter Network, shuttered during COVID-19 and has never recovered. Today, to the best of Isaac’s knowledge, only three houses of worship shelter people each night, including Broadway Community.

Isaac sees this work as his calling, though it was not always obvious. Growing up in Forest Hills and Woodmere, he had little exposure to homelessness. That changed during his sophomore year of high school, when trips into Manhattan for appointments and an internship brought him face-to-face with the reality of extreme poverty in the city. He began by handing out granola bars, care packages, and dollar bills. Over time, however, he realized that lasting impact would require institutions capable of wraparound service and building belonging.

More than 10 years later, those lessons shape Isaac’s critique of New York City’s response to homelessness. More than 100,000 people sleep in the shelter system each night, too often marked by violence, theft, and overcrowding. Meanwhile, more than 5,000 people sleep on the street, at a cost of more than $80,000 per person to the city, according to the New York State Comptroller.

Isaac believes there is a better approach at a fraction of the cost: partnering with houses of worship and equipping them to provide safe overnight space alongside meals, medical care, housing navigation, employment support, and mental-health services.