WHAT IS THE MITCHELL-LAMA RESIDENTS COALITION?

An organization, more than twenty years old, of residents and community members advocating for the maintenance of affordable, secure and decent housing for low, moderate and middle income New Yorkers.  We are the only Mitchell-Lama group representing both Co-ops and rental buildings in Albany, Buffalo, New York City (all five boroughs), Rochester, Syracuse and Westchester County.  We are recognized by the federal department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD); New York State Department of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR); and New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) as one of the premier organizations knowledgeable of the regulations, procedures and laws governing the Mitchell-Lama program

WHY THE MITCHELL-LAMA HOUSING PROGRAM?

Forty years ago it was recognized that the private sector could not build housing for the low, moderate and middle income population - without government-provided financial assistance in the form of land acquisition, low-cost mortgages, tax abatements and other incentives.  In 1955, Governor Averell Harriman signed into law a bill sponsored by Senator MacNeil Mitchell and Assemblyman Alfred Lama to encourage and promote the building of affordable housing, both rental and cooperative.

WHO ARE THE MITCHELL-LAMA RESIDENTS?

The Mitchell-Lama housing program is the largest and most successful program in the United States, with more than 400,000 New York State residents.  The residents are teachers, postal workers, construction workers, police officers, municipal workers, secretaries, students and homemakers from many ethnic and cultural backgrounds.