Blame Game: Persistent Oversight Issues Endanger Mitchell-Lama Tenants, Report Finds – City Limits

A report from State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli highlights ongoing repair issues, vacancies, and mismanaged funds in the city’s revered middle income Mitchell-Lama housing developments. But who is responsible is complicated.

Two weeks ago, Mayor Zohran Mamdani went to Washington with a pitch to build 12,000 affordable housing units at Sunnyside Yard in Queens—6,000 of which would be affordable homeownership opportunities through a “Mitchell-Lama style” program.

But the city’s existing Mitchell-Lama buildings aren’t doing so great, according to a new report from New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

The 1950s-era program is one of few long-term affordable housing options for New Yorkers, with 93,000 homeownership and rental units statewide. The report found unaddressed hazardous conditions—including mold, pests, and structural deficiencies—at 12 of 15 properties audited, including all 10 developments visited in New York City.

“Too often, serious problems in Mitchell-Lama buildings were identified but not resolved,” DiNapoli said. “When state and city agencies fail to ensure necessary repairs are made, unsafe conditions persist and New Yorkers who need affordable apartments can’t access them.”

The city’s Department of Housing Development and Preservation (HPD) oversees 46,000 units in 92 Mitchell-Lama buildings. Another 51,000 units in 86 buildings are overseen by the state’s Department of Homes and Community Renewal (HCR).

But where exactly blame lies for deteriorating conditions is not so clear cut. Mitchell-Lama buildings are large, complex housing developments that are run by a private owner (in the case of a rental) or a board usually made up of residents (in the case of a cooperative). City agencies oversee the owners and play a supervisory role in enforcing program rules.

DiNapoli said that they are falling short of those responsibilities. The agencies failed to catch misspent funds by management at 14 developments, the comptroller claimed.

But the agencies in charge, and experts, said the picture is a bit more complicated.

“Mitchell-Lama developments are an incredibly important part of New York City’s affordable housing landscape,” a spokesperson for HPD said in a statement. “Many of these buildings are now decades old and facing real financial and physical challenges, particularly as operating costs have risen sharply in recent years—from insurance to utilities to energy costs.”

The state agency, HCR, was more critical of the report. “The Comptroller’s follow-up audit contains several inaccuracies and fails to acknowledge the limited role HCR has in overseeing the day-to-day management of Mitchell-Lama housing which is privately-owned and operated,” said a spokesperson for the agency.

The state is currently engaged in efforts to rehab 28,000 Mitchell-Lama units statewide, the agency said.

“Who is responsible for what, and everyone pointing their fingers in different directions is quite common,” said Jonathan Tarleton, author of the book “Homes For Living: The Fight for Social Housing and a New American Commons,” about two New York City Mitchell-Lama developments.

Each building has its own challenges. With both rentals and cooperatives in the program, two different oversight agencies, and a slew of other players—private managers, resident boards, and landlords—management problems in Mitchell-Lama defy simple explanation.

“The focus on HPD and HCR as the root of that problem is perhaps too neat a story,” said Tarleton. “What reports like this do show is that there needs to be continued public investment.”

Trouble has been brewing for decades. Sometimes boards and landlords make shortsighted decisions, pushing repairs to the future when they will be more expensive. Sometimes property managers don’t hold up their end of the bargain and need to be replaced. And sometimes, according to DiNapoli, oversight bodies aren’t monitoring closely enough to make sure money is being spent the right way.

DiNapoli found mold at eight of 10 New York City developments examined, and pest infestations at six. And it took over seven months to fill apartment vacancies on average, the report said, despite program rules dictating they be filled within four months. Only 39 percent of vacancies in 2019 were filled within a year across all Mitchell-Lama developments.

Pamela Lockley, who lives in a Mitchell-Lama rental in Linden Plaza in East New York, said it can be a vicious cycle: short term fixes for repair issues mean more expensive long term repairs, and extended vacancies mean less building income, and less money for repairs.

“You’re treating the symptom but you’re not dealing with the problem,” said Lockley.

When they do get repairs, residents say they are sometimes not built to last.

“Many times the contractors come in and they don’t do a good job,” said Jackie Peters, who lived at The Crossing (formerly River Crossing) in East Harlem for decades until she retired in 2014. “Where’s HCR? Where’s HPD? Where is this money going and who’s signing off on this money? Who’s looking and inspecting to make sure things are really the way they’re supposed to be?”

Peters and Lockley, who are part of the Mitchell-Lama Residents Coalition, a group advocating for the preservation of the program’s buildings, said they’re grateful the comptroller made the conditions of the buildings public.

Raising rents or maintenance fees to pay for rehabilitation is unpopular with residents and, given some mistrust of management and how slow it can be to get repairs, often feels unnecessary to residents like Peters.

“If you don’t fight like the dickens, you will get that full increase—which is ridiculous—and nothing ever, ever changes,” she said.

A recent budget proposal from the State Assembly called for $750 million in capital funding to help the struggling buildings. And DHCR said Gov. Kathy Hochul’s budget aims to tackle taxes and insurance costs that drive up expenses for Mitchell-Lama buildings.

“People have to realize the money for these refinancings and major repairs is taxpayer money,” said Lockley.

Despite its warts, some sort of Mitchell-Lama style affordable housing is worth investing in in the future, said Tarleton—whether it’s rental, cooperative, or another stand-in for the government offering affordable housing.

“It’s a good model,” said Tarleton. “We have a lot to learn from it.”

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