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 Lama. It was signed into law in 1955 as The Limited-Profit Housing Companies Act (officially contained in the Private Housing Finance law, article II titled Limited-Profit Housing Companies and referring to not-for-profit corp., whereas article IV titled Limited Dividend Housing Companies refers to non-Mitchell-Lama affordable housing organized as business corp., partnerships or trusts from 1927 on).

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.

The state government agency, formerly the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR), was merged with the NYS Housing Finance Administration in 2010 to create the New York State Homes and Community Renewal agency that subsidized the mortgage supervises the building's financing and function as long as it is in the Mitchell-Lama program.

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." It has resulted in developments that were and are ethnically and even economically diverse as some of the original tenants became more successful (and therefore pay a surcharge) while others found themselves closer to or in poverty. The tenants have formed stable communities that in some cases (such as on the Upper West Side of Manhattan) have resulted in substantially increased property values.

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