IPNTA Newsletters

June/July 2003

City Council Speaker Vows to Support M-L Tenants!
Gluck Issues IPN Buyout Notice

Gifford Miller, the Speaker of the City Council, vowed to around 800 cheering tenants from Mitchell-Lama developments all over the city that he would “push the legal envelope” to enact legislation strengthening the right of IPN and other Mitchell-Lama tenants to remain in their homes at affordable rents.

The promise was made to the tenants at a June 25 rally held in the auditorium of BMCC, organized by IPNTA with the support of various unions, community groups, and the increasingly influential Working Families Party.

The day after the rally, tenants found buyout notices under their doors and posted in building lobbies. The new owner, Laurence Gluck, had long announced his plan to buy out once he took possession of the complex.

Buyouts, under which landlords may pay off remaining mortgage amounts and then charge free market rents, are permitted under the Mitchell-Lama program. Around 40 MLs throughout the city and state have already been so removed. In some instances, tenants have agreed to onerous conditions—such as high rent increases year after year in perpetuity—as a condition of remaining in their homes.

Although Miller did not specify the exact nature of the legislation he would support, his comments made clear his opposition to a policy requiring low, moderate and middle-income tenants—precisely the makeup of IPN—to be forced out of their homes in the event of a landlord buyout, because of soaring rents.

IPNTA has drafted legislation that would accomplish precisely that purpose. The Council Speaker has committed to introducing that—–or equallystrong—legislation in July, and holding hearings in September. The legislation is designed to ensure that in upcoming negotiations with Gluck and other ML landlords, the tenants will be in a strong position.

Although it has not yet been introduced, the bill would require any owner choosing to buy out to prove that the complex has been in “substantial compliance” with all ML regulations and requirements, including ongoing adequate maintenance, security, absence of corruption, and the like.

In addition, the owner would have to issue a community impact statement, showing the effects on tenants and the community of the loss of more than 1,300 affordable housing units.

Also, the owner would have to “mitigate” that impact.

These provisions would be waived, if the owner and tenants reach an agreement to keep rents affordable.

At the rally, Neil Fabricant, IPNTA’s President, said repeatedly that negotiations cannot be a two-way affair, that is, simply between the owner and tenants.

Rather, he said, it needs to be a “three-and a half way” matter, with the third party being the city government, and the “half” being the state and federal governments, all of whom have deep stakes in the program. He added that this very point was made by Daniel Doctoroff, a deputy mayor who has met with IPNTA board members.

The city administration has committed itself to ensuring that IPN tenants will remain in their homes at affordable rents.

At the rally, tenants from at least a dozen other city-administered ML projects held up their signs to loud cheers from the audience. Those tenants attended largely because IPNTA members and Working Families Party organizers canvassed their buildings the week before, handing out leaflets, and warning them of impending buyouts.

In some of those complexes, tenants had already received buyout notices.

Attending the rally, in addition to the Speaker, were Councilmembers Alan Gerson and Gale Brewer, the leaders of other MLs, a director of the Working Families Party (which has replaced the old Liberal Party as the dominant third party in NYC politics), and union representatives.

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