We ultimately focused our search along the L train subway line. For nearly a year, not one single person ever said anything but, "You will never get a two-bedroom-not even a one-bedroom-for that price." It didn't matter if it was a friend, co-worker, random person on the street, I never heard the word "NEVER" said so many times to me on a daily basis. We knew we probably weren't going to find anything in Manhattan, so we started looking in Queens and Brooklyn.Įveryone, EVERYone I told about our apartment size and price specifications said we would NEVER get that. Our goal was a two-bedroom for $1,100 per month. There was so much competition for housing, you couldn't take a shit without hiring a broker, let alone rent an apartment. It was the height of the DotCom bubble and I was looking for an apartment with a former girlfriend. At a time when there is tremendous volatility in the housing market and so many New Yorkers are struggling financially as a result of the economic slump caused by the pandemic, it is vital that we prevent Mitchell-Lama buildings from taking dramatic and permanent action that will impact peoples’ homes and finances for years to come.NYC 1999. Taken together, these two measures will ensure that privatization happens only when the vast majority of shareholders want it and that once the idea is rejected it does not remain the subject of a continuous campaign, which has proven to be divisive in many Mitchell-Lama complexes.įinally, the legislation will pause any and all formal steps toward privatization until the last of the Executive Orders related to the COVID-19 state of emergency expires or is rescinded. The legislation would raise the threshold needed to voluntarily dissolve to 80 percent of all dwelling units and it would ensure that back-to-back dissolution votes cannot be held, by imposing a five-year moratorium following a failed dissolution vote. Absentee voting will ensure that factions on the board are not empowered to harvest proxy votes to sway decisions in their favor.ĭissolution is the process by which a Mitchell-Lama building voluntarily leaves the program. To ensure that voting is fair and representative, the legislation will eliminate voting by proxy, a system which is ripe for abuse, and instead implement an absentee ballot system, which will preserve the secrecy and sanctity of votes. To enhance transparency, the legislation will require the board hold at least six public meetings each year. State law does not currently require the board to meet a certain minimum number of times a year. Shareholders are entitled to vote to elect the board and before certain other decisions are made concerning the building.
Mitchell-Lama cooperatives are run by a board of directors, the representatives of which are elected by the shareholders, or residents, of the building. More than 100,000 New Yorkers live in Mitchell-Lama housing, which is overseen by both the City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development and the State’s Division of Housing and Community Renewal.
The Mitchell-Lama program was created by the Limited Profit Housing Act in 1955 to provide affordable rental and cooperative housing to moderate- and middle-income families. “I thank all the Mitchell-Lama residents who organized and advocated so effectively for these important changes and for an affordable future for their homes, Assemblymember Rosenthal for her long-standing, forceful leadership on these issues, and all of our colleagues in both houses of the legislature who supported the bill.” “This bill is intended to ensure open, transparent governance of Mitchell-Lama cooperatives to protect the rights of shareholder residents and the public interest in preserving affordable housing in Mitchell-Lama buildings that have been subsidized for decades,” said Senator Brian Kavanagh. It is vital that we stem the loss of Mitchell-Lama affordable housing to ensure that there is a place in our city for working-class New Yorkers and their families.” “The Mitchell-Lama program is one of the state’s most successful affordable housing programs, but like so many other forms of affordable housing, we have lost too many units over the years to ill-advised privatization efforts. It ensures that shareholders have a real say over what happens in their buildings and will help to preserve moderate- and middle-income housing for years to come,” said Assemblymember Linda B. This vital legislation will restore the balance of power in Mitchell-Lama housing. “For far too long, many Mitchell-Lama shareholders have been treated as second-class residents in their own homes by over-empowered boards pursuing agendas that serve the interest of the few, not the majority.
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