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Mitchell–Lama Housing Program

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Mitchell–Lama Housing Program

The Mitchell–Lama Housing Program is a non-subsidy governmental housing guarantee in the state of New York. It was sponsored by New York State Senator MacNeil Mitchell and Assemblyman Alfred A. Lama and signed into law in 1955.

The program's publicly stated purpose was the development and building of affordable housing, both rental and co-operatively owned, for middle-income residents. Under this program, local jurisdictions acquired property by eminent domain and provided it to developers to develop housing for low- and middle-income tenants. Developers received tax abatements as long as they remained in the program, and low-interest mortgages, subsidized by the federal, state, or New York City government. They were also guaranteed a 6% or, later, 7.5% return on investment each year. The program was based on the Morningside Gardens housing cooperative, a co-op in Manhattan's Morningside Heights neighborhood that was subsidized with tax money.

It was signed into law in 1955 as the Limited-Profit Housing Companies Law. It was later recodified as article II of the 1961 Private Housing Finance Law. Article II Limited-Profit Housing Companies refer to not-for-profit corporations, whereas article IV Limited Dividend Housing Companies refer to non-Mitchell–Lama affordable housing organized since 1927 as business corporations, partnerships, or trusts under State Housing law of 1926. The New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR), was merged with the New York State Housing Finance Administration in 2010 to create the New York State Housing and Community Renewal agency. The new agency provided financing, maintenance and supervision of mortgages to developments as long as they remained in the Mitchell–Lama program.

Between 1955 and 1978, roughly 135,000 units of affordable housing were produced using Mitchell-Lama funding. Notable apartment complexes developed with Mitchell-Lama funding include the Dayton Towers, Manhattan Plaza, the Cadman Plaza, Co-op City, Masaryk Towers, and the 1199 Plaza. According to the New York State Homes and Community Renewal (formerly DHCR), "A total of 269 Mitchell-Lama developments with over 105,000 apartments were built under the program."

Landlords generally may remove the developments from Mitchell–Lama by prepaying the mortgage, which usually happens 20 years after the project is developed. However, in some cases, special land use agreements specify more time. Between 1990 and 2005, Mitchell–Lama housing lost "22,688 units, over a third (34 percent) of its stock." That pace has now increased with the real estate market for rental buildings. When a building is privatized, it loses its tax abatement, the owner generally must refinance the mortgage, and the owner loses the right to a 6% annual return on investment.

What happens to the tenants in those buildings depends on when they were built and public policy.

Tenants in rental buildings built before 1974 go into rent stabilization upon leaving Mitchell–Lama. That means their rents increase according to the New York City Rent Guidelines Board orders for each new lease as well as according to orders by the New York Office of Rent Administration for, among other things, major capital improvements and landlord hardship.

Tenants who do not qualify for enhanced vouchers, including all tenants in post-1973 buildings that were not federally subsidized, must pay the rent set by the landlords. The buildings that are no longer in a rent-regulation program pose a particular problem for tenants who were receiving special subsidies such as subsidy programs because of poverty age, and disability.

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