City's Affordable Housing Crisis Has Intensified, Thompson Says
BY JOHN TOSCANO

City Comptroller William Thompson declared last week that the city's affordable housing crisis has intensified because two programs designed to keep housing at that price level on the market have "opted out: of the program.

A report done by his office showed, he said, that since 2004, the number of housing units that have left the programs and filed to leave the programs, skyrocketed to more than 25,000.

The affordable housing units that were lost were Mitchell Lama and Limited Dividend housing units, Thompson stated.

"In just the last two years, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of affordable units converting to market rate," Thompson said. "We're seeing a staggering loss of affordable housing and along with it, fewer and fewer housing options for New Yorkers."

If all pending withdrawals occur, New York will have lost more than 49,000 units-nearly a third of the 150,000 units created under the two programs, Thompson said.

According to the comptroller's report, the substantial and accelerating loss of government-subsidized Mitchell Lama and Limited Dividend housing has offset many of the city's affordable housing gains. While the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development funded the creation of 12,229 affordable housing units since 2002, the city lost 12,943 units of Mitchell Lama housing during that same period.

Thompson said that the city is losing ground to the market forces that are tempting building owners of Mitchell Lama and Limited Dividend buildings to leave these programs.

As owners increasingly opt out of these two programs he said, thousands of New Yorkers are gong to be faced with rental rates that are far beyond their reach. Tenants paying $900 to $1,400 a month rent in the affordable housing units will be looking at $3,200 a month rent for the same twobedroom apartment.

"Now is the time to push for programs and changes in state laws to ensure the long-term affordability of these programs to protect financially vulnerable families," Thompson said.

He made several recommendations to remediate the situation, including a mortgage refinance program to pay for needed repairs for the remaining 52,090 units of Department of Housing and Community Renewal supervised Mitchell Lama housing that were financed by the state Housing Finance Agency, the Urban Development Corporation (UDC) or the State Loan Fund. New York City Comptro l l e r William C. Thompson, Jr. speaks at a news conference on Thursday, May 25, 2006, regarding the significant loss of affordable Mitchell-Lama and Limited Dividend housing units.