News
August 31, 2021Flatley Read Hires Colin McKnight
Flatley Read, Inc., an environmental and community development services firm based in Schuylerville, New York, has hired Colin McKnight as their Director of Community Development Programs. He started on August 2, 2021.
Mr. McKnight, formerly the Deputy Director of the New York State Rural Housing Coalition, will be working with small municipalities across New York state on issues such as affordable housing, historic preservation and other challenges to thriving, vital neighborhoods.
“Colin has spent two and a half decades working in the nonprofit community development sector, as well as in governmental settings administering grant programs for affordable housing and other community development work, and six years in the private sector as a community development consultant,” says Michelle DeGarmo, founder and CEO of Flatley Read. “I am thrilled to announce him as our newest full time team member, and am excited about Colin’s community development expertise. We have so many ideas and now we can finally give them all the attention that they deserve.”
A graduate of the College of St. Rose and Hudson Valley Community College and a resident of downtown Albany, Mr. McKnight is a HUD-Certified HOME Program trainer/compliance reviewer, a NeighborWorks-certified homebuyer group educator, and an experienced trainer and technical assistance provider in affordable housing development and preservation, economic development, and Main Street Revitalization.
He has worked with the Housing Assistance Council of Washington, DC on assessment and capacity-building work for HUD grantees in California, Wisconsin, and Indiana. Mr. McKnight has assisted NY communities to secure funding for historic preservation projects, tourism facilities, multifamily housing projects, single family rehabilitation, and nursing home expansion. He has also taught grant writing to community volunteers in partnership with USDA Rural Development.
His volunteer experience includes working as a Neighborhood Representative with the Council of Albany Neighborhood Associations for the past 26 years, serving on the Advisory Committee for the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York Affordable Housing, and roles with Mansion Neighborhood Association, First Lutheran Church of Albany and Albany Charity for Arts in Education.
Mr. McKnight was born in Virginia and spent his early years on a number of military bases in the mid-Atlantic region. He grew up in a small village south of Albany, along the Hudson River. He has been restoring an 1885 brownstone and a classic sports car for many years. There is always a project to be done. He spends much of the summer working in the garden and much of the winter with a stack of good books. He has yet to hear a pun that he doesn’t love, and is on a quest to find the world’s best Reuben sandwich.
