What Is Mitchell-Lama Housing?
The Mitchell-Lama program is a moderate and middle-income housing scheme established by the state Legislature in the 1950s. Rents are set according to the development s expenses, and landlords receive tax abatements for the life of its mortgage. Mitchell-Lama developments house about 200,000 people in the city, and 400,000 in the state. The program, says Mitchell-Lama tenant leader Bob Woolis, is one of the few examples of affordable housing being built by private owners on a large scale, the other times being the tenements of the 1880s and the outer-borough building boom of the 1920s. Most of the city s Mitchell-Lama housing was built between 1965 and 1975, when the city was enduring both civil unrest and a severe shortage of affordable apartments. They were afraid of what would happen if they didn t build more housing, says Woolis. The buyout provision, he says, was written into the law because it was thought that after 20 years the housing crisis would dissipate.
