Lyndia Downie: Servant Leadership

Lyndia Downie has served as Pine Street Inn’s President & Executive Director since 2000 and on Pine Street’s staff for 40 years, working in roles throughout the organization. As a result of her leadership and vision, Pine Street is now the largest provider of housing with support services for individuals moving out of homelessness in New England, with 1,100 units of housing and a major housing expansion underway. Her collaboration with other key agencies, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the City of Boston has brought the population of unsheltered individuals to just over three percent of the overall homeless population. To place that in context, in San Francisco, a city of similar size and high housing costs, the unsheltered homeless rate is over 50 percent.With a $98 million budget and services provided at four shelters and 39 housing locations in Boston and Brookline, Pine Street supports over 2,100 individuals each day, with programs including street outreach, emergency shelter, supportive housing and job training. iCater, a Pine Street Inn social enterprise, is a successful catering business providing meals to a variety of organizations and job training to individuals moving back into the workforce.Looking ahead, Lyndia is guiding Pine Street’s bold plan to add 400-500 new units, with 250 already in development. The expansion is driven by large-scale new developments that will have a powerful impact on ending homelessness. This expanded vision for housing is largely supported by a transformative $15 million commitment from the Yawkey Foundation.With her keen understanding of the complex causes of homelessness and proven methods to solve it, Lyndia is a frequently requested speaker who regularly serves as a policy advisor at the city, state and federal levels. Lyndia served on former Mayor Walsh’s Advisory Council on Homelessness and was a member of the task force that helped shape the City of Boston’s action plan to end veteran and chronic homelessness. She also serves on a number of policy advisory committees to the state’s Executive Office of Health and Human Services, and has presented on Pine Street Inn’s strategic housing expansion at the annual conference of the National Alliance to End Homelessness in Washington, D.C.Additionally, Lyndia has been tapped to serve on a number of committees and boards, including the Massachusetts Council of Human Service Providers, the Massachusetts Housing & Shelter Alliance, the Board of Advisors of Eastern Bank and the Franklin Square House Foundation. She was also named a Barr Fellow through the Barr Foundation’s program to honor nonprofit leaders in the region and has co-taught a course on solutions to homelessness at the Harvard Kennedy School.In 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023, Lyndia was selected as one of the top 100 women leaders in Massachusetts by The Commonwealth Institute in partnership with The Boston Globe. Boston Magazine has named Lyndia “One of the 100 Most Influential Bostonians,” and she has received the Massachusetts Council of Human Services’ CEO Award of Excellence for her leadership. In addition, Pine Street Inn was honored with Bank of America’s Neighborhood Builders award, which recognizes innovation, excellence and leadership among nonprofits across the country.Lyndia received the Henry L. Shattuck City Champion Award from the Boston Municipal Research Bureau and was named the “Most Innovative Person in the Massachusetts Non-Profit Sector” by The Boston Globe. Lyndia has also received the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce Pinnacle Award, the New England Women’s Leadership Award, and the University of Vermont’s 2020 Alumni Association Award.