The Lawn Avenue Affordable Housing Development, a 20 unit two-family town home project near downtown New Rochelle, opened in 1999 with a large celebration of members of both the public and private sectors. New home owners and tenants, local government officials and NRNRC members gathered for the grand opening of a project that will increase the availability of affordable housing in the area, continue to help revitalize a city center neighborhood, while also taking a new look at community make-up in affordable housing development.

"The Lawn Avenue Development serves two key population groups who, historically, have been paying up to 50% of their income for rental housing; low income families and senior citizens," said Frank J. Garito, President of NRNRC. "The NRNRC will continue to meet the housing needs of these two groups in New Rochelle."

A less tangible, but nonetheless important aspect of a living arrangement that pairs senior citizens with new families is the positive inter-generational mixing that occurs, said Charles DePasquale, Executive Vice President of the NRNRC. "The Lawn Avenue project demonstrates the creative use of urban in-fill housing to restabilize a declining neighborhood and meet our greater goals of providing affordable housing to the community," he said.

The Lawn Avenue Development required numerous partnerships and grant sources: Federal, State, County and City. Each two-family town home of 1,900 S.F. sold for $142,000 to first-time home buyers, seven homes were sold to New Rochelle residents and three homes were sold to other County of Westchester residents. The one bedroom senior citizen apartments are rented to seniors, aged 62 or over. A subsidized sales price of $142,000 and a one bedroom senior rental apartment permitted potential home buyers to apply with incomes in the range of $35,000, which is less than 50% of the area median income.