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Q&A
Preservation efforts for Mitchell-Lama cooperatives and challenges in maintaining affordability
1:55:03
·
4 min
Council Member Farías inquires about HPD's efforts to preserve Mitchell-Lama cooperatives and address challenges in maintaining affordability. HPD officials explain their strategies and the complexities involved in managing these properties.
- HPD uses Section 8 vouchers and other programs to stabilize Mitchell-Lama developments
- The department has spent around $760 million since 2014 on stabilizing Mitchell-Lama stock
- Challenges include rising maintenance costs and the need for collaboration between city and state agencies
- Council Member Farías emphasizes the need for better oversight and coordination between city and state to protect homeowners in these developments
Amanda Farías
1:55:03
Okay.
1:55:03
And then I just have a a last quick question around the support around which aligns and cooperatives and the preservation efforts.
1:55:11
I'd like to hear any thoughts about working with THCR at the States and how any challenges presented by their management or in my opinion for some of my properties in my district mismanagement of of them and how it's impacting the folks that we've over decades attempted to help them create generational wealth and be homeowners in our communities that are now, you know, seeing massive increases.
1:55:37
And we're potentially even the council has now seen a Mitchalama have to move out of the Mitchalama program because of that mismanagement.
1:55:46
And I wonder how that impacts your work and and the preservation efforts that you folks have.
Kim Darga
1:55:51
Yeah.
1:55:51
I mean, this is the issues facing existing buildings have been really significant the last couple of years.
1:56:01
I mean, we say there's been cost increase and that's increased the cost of real estate construction.
1:56:06
But when you're talking about an existing building, you can't you know, raising rents has different implications.
1:56:13
Right?
1:56:13
Or raising maintenance has different locations.
1:56:15
There's people living there today, not people that are choosing to move into a place.
1:56:20
And so we are as equally concerned as you are about making sure that we are doing everything we can to ensure good housing quality within that housing and that and it can stay as affordable as possible.
1:56:38
We have been working and talking a lot with the state recently, particularly about Mitchell Llamas, and if there are ways that, you know, things that we could do, additional resources that we might be able to bring to bear in order to help make sure that those properties remain in good condition.
Ahmed Tagani
1:57:01
I would just go ahead.
1:57:02
So to get down to some of the specific items, so Mitchell Almonds are actually a place where we use a pretty significant portion of our section 8 or our federal housing vouchers.
1:57:12
To make sure we're stabilizing people.
1:57:14
I think we have at least 55100 vouchers in Mitchalama, and we continue to do that work.
1:57:19
It's part of that stability work where we're using vouchers.
1:57:22
We're also actively using the screen program.
1:57:25
As we see maintenance increases that may have to come up.
1:57:28
I mean, from HPD's perspective, we have about, you know, 96 developments, 47,000 units.
1:57:34
It's a big part of the work we did last year.
1:57:37
I think Kim had mentioned, we spend around 97,000,000.
1:57:41
I think we've spent somewhere around 760,000,000 since 2014 just stabilizing the Mitchell Llama stock.
1:57:48
So we're looking at a couple of things.
1:57:50
There are powers that the state has that we don't have.
1:57:52
There are things that we can do on the local level.
1:57:55
Everything from, you know, what the taxes are in a building, to the use of housing vouchers, to the reliability and the consistency of maintenance to meet the accelerating costs.
1:58:06
We're trying to map this into a strategy and and and work smart because we we need to have resources, and we have to make sure we're using this in a smart way.
Kim Darga
1:58:15
Yeah.
1:58:15
I would just say if I mean, if there particular issues that you're seeing, I please reach out us.
UNKNOWN
1:58:21
Okay.
1:58:21
Good.
1:58:22
Alright.
Margy Brown
1:58:22
Thank you so
Kim Darga
1:58:22
much already.
1:58:23
Okay.
Amanda Farías
1:58:23
I'm gonna say don't need to give you both Yeah.
1:58:25
My list again.
1:58:26
Yes.
1:58:26
You folks got my list.
1:58:27
I I appreciate your responses.
1:58:29
I think that there's because of the jurisdictional capacities that we have, and I think We've kind of left that gap to each each of our, you know, the state doing their thing, the city doing our thing, have left families at high risk of losing their homes.
1:58:46
And at the end of the day, these mitrals, or that they're run by DC HR, or they're run by us, they are within the city.
1:58:53
And I think it's really critical for us to have a larger hand, and at least the oversight that the state is doing or the lack thereof that they are doing and looking at the HOA is the boards, the the management properties that are not actually putting in place the standards that need to be practiced by a lot of these properties and are putting our families at risk of losing their home.
1:59:16
So We will continue the conversation on the properties I have in my district, but there is a larger conversation that needs to happen between the city and the state as we continue discussing homeownership and preservation of homeownership.
1:59:29
Thank you, Chair, and thank you folks.