From left to right: Teresa Stephenson of Platinum Properties, David Yang of Corcoran, Stephanie Schonholz, Senior Manager Broker Relations at StreetEasy, Adam Mahfouda of the Oxford Property Group.

Last Thursday, more than 150 real estate professionals slept on the street. We spent the night outside of the Jacob Javits Center to help raise money for homeless youth in partnership with Covenant House, an organization that has helped transform and save the lives of more than a million homeless, runaway and trafficked young people.

At StreetEasy, we envision a world where everyone, regardless of their economic circumstances, has access to the resources that can help them find a place to call home. That’s why we are so happy to support the Covenant House by participating in the Sleep Out.

Key Industry Partners Sleep Out in Solidarity

The Sleep Out was truly eye-opening. After a series of inspiring breakout sessions with the staff of the Covenant House and other participants, our team of volunteers headed to the sidewalk outside the Javits Center. Each volunteer got a sleeping bag, cardboard box and plastic trash bag.  As the city grew darker, (slightly) less quiet and decidedly chillier, they settled in for the night. Over the next 10 hours, the volunteers had a unique opportunity to contemplate what life on the streets might actually be like for thousands of New Yorkers.

When dawn broke, the volunteers packed away their cardboard boxes, regrouped for a moment and emerged back on the streets of Midtown with a new sense of awareness and empathy for the immeasurable odds young people facing homelessness overcome every day.

We extend a heartfelt thank you to our partners David Yang of Corcoran, Teresa Stephenson of Platinum Properties and Adam Mahfouda of the Oxford Property Group, who spent the night alongside StreetEasy’s Stephanie Schonholz at the Sleep Out and helped raise money for the Covenant House.

How You Can Get Involved

StreetEasy’s partnership with Covenant House is part of our broader social impact initiative aimed at addressing challenges related to housing insecurity and homelessness. We provide philanthropic contributions, in-kind donations and access to Zillow Group resources like housing data, search tools and employee time.

We know our nonprofit partners are the experts on the issues they address and so we work alongside them, listen deeply, and share our expertise and resources where and when they can be most effective.

How do you support your local community? We are always excited to hear from people in our community. If you would like to get in touch with the Social Impact team at Zillow Group to share ideas, make a connection, extend an invitation or just get to know us a little better, please email us at homeproject@zillowgroup.com.