64 AMERICANWAY
NOVEMBER 1 2007
H O M E I M P R O V E M E N T
After earning tens of millions of dollars in
his highly successful decade-plus career,
which included stints with the BostonRed
Sox,AnaheimAngels,and, finall ,NewYork
Mets, and during which he made multiple
All-Star Game appearances and even won
a league MVP award, Vaughn easily could
have pursued a leisurely, luxury-filled re-
tirement. Instead, he’s chosen towork lon-
ger days than ever before, deny himself any
sort of off-season, and spend a good chunk
of his time in some of the toughest housing
projects inNewYorkCity. As co-owner and
comanaging director of Omni NewYork, a
real estate development company, Vaughn
has devoted his postathletic career to pro-
vidingmore, and significantly better quali-
ty, affordablehousing inNewYorkandoth-
er cities throughout the country. Vaughn’s
entry into the field of affordable housing,
particularly inNew York, had at least part
of its genesis in the disappointment he felt
regardinghissubpar, injury-plagued tenure
with theMets:Hewanted tomake it up to
the fans. But the establishment of Omni,
which since its founding in 2004 has pur-
chased, rehabbed, or constructed 10 build-
ings that provide more than 1,700 afford-
ableunits,wasnot purelyphilanthropic.As
it turns out, affordablehousing canbeboth
a profitable and an emotionally gratifying
business, which is exactly the combination
Vaughn,whowaswellknown forhischarity
work during his playing days, was seeking.
“I really wanted to do something that was
going to be a true business and be impact-
ful,” he says.
Figuring out exactly what that would be
took someeffort.Whenheknewhisdayson
the field were over, Vaughn, with the help
of his attorney, Eugene Schneur, who now
is also his business partner at Omni, made
it known that he wanted to do something
to give back to New York. At fir t, city of-
ficialswere skeptical andprobedSchneur to
gauge Vaughn’s seriousness. “Does hewant
togoout andplant some trees anddo some
photo ops?” Schneur recalls an official ask-
inghim. “I calledMobackand said, ‘Mo, do
youwant to go plant some trees?’ Mo said,
‘Idon’twant toplant any trees; Iwant todo
something for real.’” Ultimately, thanks to
Vaughn’s highprofile, he andSchneurwere
able to wrangle a meeting with New York
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who encour-
aged them to pursue affordable housing,
something themayorhasmadea topprior-
ity forhis administration.
The need for affordable housing in an
expensive city like New York is acute. Em-
ilyYoussouf, president of theNewYorkCity
HousingDevelopmentCorporation (HDC),
a public benefit corporation that helps
fi
-
nanceandmonitoraffordablehousingproj-
ects, points out that a combination of fac-
tors such as a vacancy rate of less than one
MoVaughn
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