Town Of Smithtown Announces Winner Of 1st Housing Lottery

KINGS PARK, NY - A Ronkonkoma man was the lucky winner of the Town of Smithtown's first workforce housing home lotto drawing on Tuesday.

Neil Coleman, a 25 year old electrician, was the first name drawn for the purchase of a new affordable home in San Remo, Kings Park.

The winner was announced by the Long Island Housing Partnership, Inc. along with local and county elected officials during the drawing at the Town of Smithtown’s Town Hall Board Room.

All 39 applicants that applied for the lottery were in attendance as their names were called at random by local officials from the Town of Smithtown, with the first five names called by Supervisor Ed Wehrheim.

Assemblyman Mike Fitzpatrick, Councilman Tom McCarthy (liaison to the Planning Department) Councilwoman Lisa Inzerillo, Councilman Tom Lohmann, Town Clerk Vincent Puleo, the Planning And Community Development coordinator Kelly Brown, and Allyson Murray, the Principal Planner for Town of Smithtown’s Planning Department, each drew the applicants names.

All 39 applicants will have the chance to qualify for the San Remo house in the order their names were drawn.

"For quite some time, Smithtown has been known as an expensive place to live," Wehrheim said. "Creating workforce housing like this San Remo property gives our young business professionals the chance to start a family where they grew up."

The 3 bedroom San Remo property is located on Locust Drive, and is priced at $350,100.

The home boasts a beautiful view of a nearby marina, just walking distance from the property.

The Town of Smithtown adopted a Municipal Workforce Housing Policy in October 2017, in accordance with New York State’s LI Workforce Housing Act.

The Workforce housing policy requires developers building subdivisions with five or more units, to create 10 percent of the development for workforce housing.

To qualify for Workforce Housing, the homeowner’s household income cannot exceed 130 percent of the median income for Long Island.

This Locust Drive home is the first property within the Town of Smithtown to be built in compliance with the adopted policy.

"This is exactly what we set out to do at the beginning of the year... talented professionals have a chance to own a brand new home here in Smithtown, under market value and in a fantastic community," McCarthy said. "I look forward to the next drawing of 7 units at Country Pointe later this year."

The Long Island Housing Partnership, Inc. is expected to coordinate the sale of the seven affordable condominium units at Country Pointe “The Woods” in Smithtown, following the completion of construction.

Watch a video from the drawing below:

Photos courtesy of the Town of Smithtown