MANHASSET, N.Y. — Louis Winnick, an economist who helped guide the investments of the Ford Foundation and promoted low-income home ownership, has died. He was 85.

Winnick died Saturday at a hospice in Manhasset, on Long Island. The cause of death was mesothelioma, a type of lung cancer that his daughter Pamela Winnick attributed to exposure to asbestos when he worked in the Brooklyn Navy Yard during World War II.

Winnick was born in Romania and came to Brooklyn when he was 1. He graduated from Brooklyn College and earned a graduate degree in economics at Columbia University.

He worked for the New York City Planning Commission and the Housing and Redevelopment Board before joining the Ford Foundation in 1962. He served as deputy vice president in the national affairs division from 1968 to 1986.