“Mitchell-Lama was one of New York’s most successful projects, and the time has come for us to do it again.”
It is well-known that New York City is in the midst of an affordability crisis. While a large part of the solution lies in helping low-income New Yorkers thrive through programs like Section 8, an often overlooked population that is being hit hard by this crisis is the middle class.
A recent report by the Community Service Society of New York revealed that 39 percent of eviction orders between 2021 and 2024 have been directed to middle-income households. This is a 12 percent increase from pre-pandemic years 2014 to 2019. Between 2020 and 2022, over 400,000 people left the state, 94 percent of whom were from New York City. Many of these residents were middle and working-class people who left due to the high cost of living.
It is obvious that New York City needs more units designated for middle-income residents. A critical component of addressing this lies in creating new middle-income housing. The Mitchell-Lama program does just that, providing affordable rental and cooperative housing to moderate and middle-income families…