Media Personality Taryn Delanie Smith Named Ambassador for Coalition for the Homeless

The Coalition for the Homeless, New York City’s leading advocacy and direct services organization in the fight against homelessness, announces the appointment of Digital Creator, Host, Actor, and Comedian Taryn Delanie Smith as its first ever Ambassador. With a combined social media following of more than 2.7 million, Smith brings her authentic voice and personal experience to help reframe the conversation around homelessness in New York City.

Taryn’s appointment marks a strategic effort from the Coalition to reach a wider audience, helping New Yorkers to consider the crisis of homelessness in their City with fresh eyes, realizing at its core, homelessness is ultimately an affordable housing issue.

“We so admire Taryn’s dedication to educating her community, fostering compassion and activism, and making New York a more just and humane City. She’s an amazing person, and will be an ideal ambassador for this cause,” said Dave Giffen, Executive Director of the Coalition for the Homeless. “Her ability to connect with audiences across the political spectrum with such wholesome authenticity will be exceedingly valuable in helping us to amplify our message that mass homelessness in New York is in fact a solvable crisis.”

Taryn has first-hand experience navigating New York City’s housing crisis. A first generation college student, she completed her Bachelors and Masters of Science while waitressing full time. When the pandemic hit, Smith lost her university housing and job as a waitress. She cleaned apartments to stay afloat, moving into a shared house in Bed-Stuy, and split her time between her studies, cleaning houses, and volunteering at local shelters.

But Taryn’s story isn’t unique. The stark reality is that hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers struggle everyday just to afford their monthly rent, and approximately 350,000 New Yorkers will go to sleep tonight without homes of their own, including more than 120,000 people in shelters and thousands more on the streets. The majority of these individuals are families with children. 

“When I first moved to New York, I learned quickly that having a stable home isn’t just about working hard – every New Yorker works hard, and every New Yorker longs for a home,” said Taryn. “I’m partnering with the Coalition because they understand that homelessness isn’t about individual choices, it’s about systemic issues that affect all of us.”

Over the next year, Taryn will create content across multiple platforms to promote the Coalition’s work and raise awareness about homelessness in New York City and its solutions, as well as volunteer with some of the Coalition’s direct service programs, and host fundraising events throughout the year. The Coalition for the Homeless provides emergency food and clothing, housing, crisis services, job training, and youth programs to more than 3,500 people each day, and has helped over one million people find their way off the streets since its founding in 1981.

This partnership represents a new chapter in advocacy: where social media meets social change, and where important conversations about housing justice find an authentic voice. Through her platform of 2.7 million followers, Taryn isn’t just raising awareness – she is transforming how her generation understands and engages with New York City’s housing crisis.