Rents will increase dramatically, perhaps four or five times the current rent, if developers are allowed to charge market rate rents. What is really at stake is what will happen to the rents. That developers can buy out of the program is not really the issue, advocates and tenants said. About 32,000 Mitchell-Lama apartments face a similar fate 11 developments are currently in the process of buying out. For developments like Land's End One, which was opened for occupancy in 1978, a 20-year commitment to affordability expired in 1998. A buyout option allows developers to take the apartments out of the program depending on what year they were built and whether the building's mortgage has been paid. In return for the loans and real estate tax abatements, developers committed to keeping the apartments affordable. you're going to undo the very stability you've created." "It's one of the most well designed affordable housing programs the city has and a model for the nation. "Mitchell-Lama housing is absolutely critical," said Councilmember Eva Moskowitz, who represents district 4 on Manhattan's East Side, which has several Mitchell-Lama projects in it. The laws helped spur the development of almost 150,000 apartments in New York City, according to the city Comptroller's office. They exist in buildings developed with state and city low-interest loans provided through a 1955 law sponsored by Manhattan State Senator MacNeil Mitchell and former Brooklyn Assemblyman Alfred Lama. There are about 60,000 Mitchell-Lama rental apartments left in New York City, mostly located in Brooklyn and Manhattan.
City-sponsored legislation in Albany and City Council bills have set off a political battle. An appeals court decision at the end of February only added to their anxiety.
There is growing fear among tenants of Mitchell-Lama apartments that they may have to leave their apartments or pay significantly higher rents. Where are we going to go? I really don't know where I'm going to start looking for an apartment." "There's very little affordable housing in this city. "Tenants are really feeling it," Richardson said, a member of the Lands End One Tenants Association. For more than 20 years, Marc Richardson has called the Lower East Side home and despite gentrification and increased rents in his neighborhood he has been able to do so thanks largely to the fact that he lives in a Mitchell-Lama apartment building.īut his days in the apartment may be numbered: The owners of the Lands End One complex, which includes 251 apartments, announced late last year that they have opted to buy out of the Mitchell-Lama program - and seek market rents for the apartments.
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