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Mitchell-Lamas in Jeopardy
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.
The year your building was built makes a difference!.
The state courts have affirmed the validity of a state housing agency regulation that protects tenants in pre-1974 buildings taken out of Mitchell-Lama. Tenants in building constructed from 1974 on remain unprotected.
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.
- Click on LEGISLATION for the status of pending bills this term, and on LEGAL CASES for recent court developments.
- 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.
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A year and a half after the rent laws were amended in June 2011, the state's housing agency (DHCR) has proposed some new regulations to implement those changes.
Review the proposed changes, and testify on June 10th before a NYS Assembly hearing. Click on "read more" for details, and email RentRegulationComments@nyshcr.org to register.
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Posted by sue on Wednesday, April 24 @ 16:52:26 EDT (41 reads)
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Events: May 22 Tenant Lobby Day in Albany
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The Real Rent Reform Campaign will have free buses to Albany for Tenant Lobby Day on
- Wednesday, May 22, 2013
- Early (R3 will be doing lobby training up in Albany that day) - and coming back around 7:30 PM
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Events: Tenants & Campaign Finance Reform
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Join the Real Rent Reform and Mike Kink of Strong Economy for All
to discuss how Campaign Finance Reform in NYS is crucial to ending vacancy de-stabilization, gaining home rule, and strengthening the rent laws in 2015:
- Monday, Feb. 25, 2013
- 6:30 PM
- 113 East 13th St. (between 3rd and 4th Avenues in Manhattan)
Trains 456LNRQ to 14th Street-Union Sq.
Click on "read more" below for more information.
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Posted by sue on Tuesday, February 12 @ 13:24:57 EST (208 reads)
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In her Feb. 11, 2013 State of the City address, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn made five proposals about affordable housing - some city-based, and others state-based.
- Building 40,000 new middle income affordable apartments ("affordable" not defined) on top of the 4,000 new units of low-income housing being built under Mayor Bloomberg's New Housing Marketplace Plan. Money for this will come from unused funds for other government programs.
- Permanent Affordability Act (state law), so new units remain permanently affordable.
- Pilot program: cap real estate taxes at fixed percent of rental income for landlords who keep rents affordable.
- Overhaul the City's Housing Maintenance Code with steeper penalties and requirements.
- Set up a Distressed Housing Trust Fund to buy overleveraged buildings (with over-high mortgages) in bulk, then rehab and sell them to better private owners.
Missing: An end to the vacancy destabilization that drains NYC of tens of thousands of affordable apartments yearly.
Click on "read more" for details.
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Pending Legislation Affecting Tenants
Click on "read more" below for many tenant bills that have been propsoed.
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The State Senate and Assembly have both now passed last June's "Big Ugly" combination bill, S3230, that includes - J-51 Tax breaks for owners
- 421-A and other tax breaks for specific (wealthy) developers,
- BUT NO significant protections for tenants.
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Events: Gov. Cuomo highlights need for affordable housing
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In his State of the State address for 2013, Governor Cuomo addressed the need for affordable housing.
In particular, he proposes to - spend $1 billion to build or preserve 14,000 units of affordable housing (NYC is 356,000 units short);
- move 44 buildings (those that used to be in the "UDC" program?) Mitchell-Lama portfolio from Empire State Development to NYS HCR for additional financing;
- promote HCR's "Tenant Protection Unit" (although it remains underfunded, and lacks necessary regulations)
Click on "read more" below for an excerpt of his speech on housing and some comments. Click here for the full speech. (Housing begins on p. 110.)
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Posted by sue on Wednesday, January 09 @ 17:41:46 EST (306 reads)
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Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village tenants have settled the money and other details left over from theRoberts v. Tishman Speyer case.
The Roberts court ruled that landlords who are getting a J-51 tax break to improve their buildings can't take apartments out of rent regulation as long as the tax break lasts. But the court did not determine what the rents of newly re-regulated apartments should be.
The tenants and the owners (no longer Tishman Speyer) have now settled. Click here for the settlement.
The Stuy Town tenant association has its own comments.
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Co-op City gets huge loan: staying affordable!
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Co-op City, the state's largest Mitchell-Lama cooperative housing 55,000 residents, just won a state-backed loan that will permit it to remain affordable for 35 more years.
Click on "read more" for Governor Cuomo's press release.
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Posted by sue on Thursday, November 29 @ 00:49:17 EST (407 reads)
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