|  |
Mitchell-Lamas' Jeopardy - Not Fully Resolved by the Governor
Thousands of Mitchell-Lama apartments in New York City -- created by a wonderfully successful NYS middle-income housing program -- are facing extinction. This website primarily concerns rentals. If you want to keep your Mitchell-Lama co-op in the program, contact Co-operators United For Mitchell-Lama.
Re: Pre-1974 rental developments: Building owners claim that just leaving Mitchell-Lama is a "unique or peculiar circumstance" under the Emergency Tenant Protection Act that would justify raising rents to market rate. While NYS's Division of Housing & Community Renewal (DCHR) passed regulations to the contrary, closing that loophole, owners Larry Gluck of Stellar Management and Steven Witkoff of Witkoff Realty have brought law suits against those regulations.
What happens to us depends on how the state's courts interpret the law, as landlords appeal the new regulations. As of now:
- Pre-March 10,1969 rental buildings go into rent stabilization on leaving Mitchell-Lama. The Court of Appeals ruled that landlords may apply to the NY State Division of Housing and Community Renewal for an increase in the starting rent stabilized rents -- without saying such increases would be granted. November 2007 state regulations bar increases just for taking a building out of Mitchell-Lama. (Two major New York City landlords are challenging the regulations in court. See article below.)
- Developments built between March 10, 1969 and Jan. 1, 1974 go into rent stabilization but -- depending on what the courts say about the DHCR regulations adopted November 21, 2007 -- all of their apartments are either protected by the new regulations or could still face those potentially huge increases based on "unique and peculiar circumstances."
(Buildings with federal mortgage subsidies have "enhanced vouchers" to contend with. See the FAQ section.)
The new regulations, if they stand up to court appeal, may save thousands of apartments of New York City's stock of affordable housing. This is the result of the work of hundreds of tenants and tenant advocates. You can thank Commissioner Deborah Van Amerongen and urge her and Governor David Paterson to support legislation to make these changes permanent (statutes have more authority than regulations).
Re: Buildings built from 1974 on:
While tenants in the pre-1974 buildings must keep paying lawyers thousands of dollars to protect their homes, the most vulnerable buildings were built from Jan. 1, 1974 on because they are allowed to go to market rate on leaving Mitchell-Lama -- leaving the tenants facing eviction, or short-term government subsidies to postpone steeper increases. In some cases strong tenant associations have been able to negotiate "landlord assistance plans" to keep their homes affordable.
This home page has the most recent announcements and articles. Click on the various categories on the right side for additional material.
- The CALENDAR includes events regarding affordable housing.
- To find your legislators and learn more about your building and its history, click on "FIND YOUR BUILDING" here or on the right panel.
- Find tenant association resources -- including
- "TAKING ACTION" suggests what we can do, and
- "EVENTS" is a record of coming and past events in the Affordable Housing movement.
|
|
|
The Community Service Society has just published its 2008 report, Closing the Door, which notes that, as stated in the
Crain's New York Business.com headline, "Predatory Equity is Smothering Affordable Housing."
Click on "read more" below for the Crain's article
|
|
The New York Times reports that the court has approved the sale of the building known as General Sedgwick (the home of hip hop) to developer Mark Karasick.
Karasick has already applied for "unique or peculiar circumstances" increases for every apartment in the building. Tenants must answer this one as a single unit, and not one at a time: in unity there is strength!
Click here or on "read more" below for the article.
|
|
REAL RENT REFORM Campaign
|
|
The Real Rent Reform campaign speaks for all tenants in rent regulated housing - from current and former Mitchell-Lamas to Section 8, to rent stabilized tenants and, perhaps, for those under rent control.
See the demands of the R3 campaign, reproduced below if you click on "read more.
|
Posted by sue on Monday, September 15 @ 16:05:55 CDT (39 reads)
(Read More... | 7686 bytes more )
|
|
|
Events: 'Alternative minimum'' lawsuit against RGB
|
|
Tenants and Neighbors and many other tenant groups and individual tenants are plaintiffs in a lawsuit brought against the Rent Guidelines Board challenging this year's supplemental longevity increase.
The Legal Aid Society filed the case, which has now been assigned to Judge Emily Jane Goodman.
A press conference announced the lawsuit on Tuesday September 16, 2008.
Click on "read more" below for more information about the suit, which challenges the "alternative minimum" increase imposed by the RGB.
|
Posted by sue on Thursday, September 11 @ 22:00:25 CDT (38 reads)
(Read More... | 1860 bytes more | Events)
|
|
|
U or P lawsuit - latest developments
|
|
Landlords Steve Witkoff of Witkoff Realty and Laurence Gluck of Stellar Management - along with some colleagues - are pursuing their action against the state's Division of Housing & Community Renewal's regulations.
Those regulations say that just leaving Mitchell-Lama is not by itself a "unique or peculiar circumstance" justifying raising the initial rent stabilized rent.
For the latest in the ongoing court action, click on "read more" below.
|
Posted by sue on Tuesday, September 02 @ 15:57:27 CDT (48 reads)
(Read More... | 2121 bytes more )
|
|
|
The New York Times reports that Stellar Management's threatened default on the Riverton Apartments is only the tip of the iceberg.
Click on The New York Times or on "read more" below for the full article.
|
|
Riverton tenants, politicians and residents of other Stellar-owned buildings rallied on Saturday, Aug. 24, 2008.
Click on NY Times for the full article with photos, or click on "read more" below for the full article without the photos.
|
|
Predatory Equity in action: Gluck near default on Riverton Apartment
|
|
Stellar and its partner Rockpoint are on the verge of defaulting on their $225 million mortgage for Riverton Apartments in Harlem. See general articles in the Wall Street Journal, Reuters,Crain's New York and WNYC, and a finance-oriented article in Debtwire.
The reason given in the Wall Street Journal article was the owners' failure to oust enough rent-regulated tenants.
Many tenants and elected officials (Congressman Charles Rangel, State Senator Bill Perkins, Riverton resident Assembly Member Keith Wright, and others attended a rally led by Riverton tenant association leader Cynthia Allen.
The likely default was predicted by the Partnership to Preserve Affordable Housing in its April 28, 2008 memo (click on "read more" below to see it), written by Thomas Waters, housing analyst for the Community Service Society. When equity funds invest substantially more than the rents will supply, the investment can only be repaid by evicting the rent-regulated tenants. Failure to do that means defaults, lack of maintenance, and disaster.
Click on "read more" below for an explanation of how "Predatory Equity" will lead to massive disinvestment in NYC's affordable housing stock.
|
Posted by sue on Friday, August 15 @ 23:32:29 CDT (578 reads)
(Read More... | 6691 bytes more )
|
|
|
A huge rally protested DHCR's proposed regulations (scroll down on the regulations document).
These regulations would not stop landlords from evicting rent-regulated tenants in order to substantially renovate their apartments and make them into condominiums.
Click on "read more" below for the New York Times article and for some testimony given by tenant advocates and elected officials.
|
Posted by sue on Tuesday, August 12 @ 21:28:52 CDT (101 reads)
(Read More... | 33717 bytes more )
|
|
|
General Sedgwick, 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx, is again threatened with leaving Mitchell-Lama.
Although tenants -- with the help of UHAB, Tenants & Neighbors, the NYS Department of Housing Preservation & Development and Senator Charles Schumer -- defeated the owner's original efforts to sell the building while it was in Mitchell-Lama, the owner now plans to take the building out of Mitchell-Lama first and then sell it.
Once the development is out of Mitchell-Lama, HPD will no longer have any say in the matter.
So tenants rallied on August 6th, urging the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and other banks to stay out of the buyout and sale process - so the development can stay affordable.
Click on "read more" below for an article in the NY Times by Jennifer 8. Lee, and an article on the August 6, 2008 rally in the NY Daily News.
|
| |
|
