Mitchell–Lama Housing Program
The Mitchell–Lama Housing Program is a non-subsidy governmental housing guarantee in the state of New York that supports limited-profit rental and cooperative housing for moderate- and middle-income residents. It was established in 1955 and is jointly administered by New York State Homes and Community Renewal and, for city-supervised developments, the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Under the program, local jurisdictions may acquire property by eminent domain and provide it to developers to build housing for low- and middle-income tenants. Developers receive tax abatements while they remain in the program and low-interest mortgages subsidized by the federal, state, or New York City government, and are guaranteed a limited return on equity.
File:Co-op City Hutch River.jpg|thumb|Co-op City in the Bronx, a Mitchell–Lama development
Between the mid-1950s and late 1970s, the program helped produce more than 130,000 apartments in New York City alone and a total of 269 developments with over 105,000 apartments statewide, making it one of the most significant sources of postwar, non-public affordable housing in New York. The program has been described by housing scholars and advocates as a major experiment in limited-equity and limited-profit housing and a touchstone for contemporary debates over social housing and the preservation of middle-income housing in high-cost cities.
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.
History
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 refers to not-for-profit corporations, whereas article IV Limited Dividend Housing Companies refers 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 was merged with the New York State Housing Finance Administration in 2010 to create New York State Homes and Community Renewal, which finances, maintains and supervises mortgages to developments as long as they remain in the Mitchell–Lama program.
Between 1955 and 1978, roughly 135,000 units of affordable housing were produced using Mitchell–Lama funding. A 2015 analysis by the Community Service Society estimated that, in New York City, more than 66,000 subsidized rental apartments and 69,000 cooperative apartments were created under the program between 1955 and 1981. Notable apartment complexes developed with Mitchell–Lama funding include the Dayton Towers, Manhattan Plaza, Cadman Plaza, Co-op City, Masaryk Towers, and 1199 Plaza. According to New York State Homes and Community Renewal, "a total of 269 Mitchell-Lama developments with over 105,000 apartments were built under the program".
Removing properties
s generally may remove 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 longer terms. Between 1990 and 2005, Mitchell–Lama housing lost "22,688 units, over a third of its stock". Subsequent analyses by the New York City Comptroller and housing researchers concluded that the pace of withdrawals from Mitchell–Lama and related limited-dividend programs accelerated in the 2000s.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.